As a
quick note, one of Crunchyroll’s unexpected pick-ups was the second season of
AKB0048 which was already on my radar since it showed up on a number of
people’s end of year lists, sometimes as a “this turned out way better than
expected!” entry. So, even though I’m a little put off my how silly the premise
is, I remind myself that I was okay with a silly premise for Aquarion Evol
so I’m trying out the fansubs (since crunchy isn’t streaming the first season)
and so far so good!
Amnesia
Our
heroine has collapsed at the maid café where she works and upon waking up can’t
remember a thing. A floating spirit tells her that her missing memories are his
fault, he came from another world and seems to have displaced her memories by
coming here and, while she can regain them by interacting with those around her
if she doesn’t she’ll eventually forget how to do even everyday things and
slowly die.
Well
then, it’s always amusing to see what circumstances an otome game comes up with
to explain how you ended up surrounded by attractive and eligible young men, at
least this time there’s also a reason why the character was so damn boring to
start with. Sadly the guys weren’t anymore interesting than the girl, I’m told
that what makes this game unique is that you can actually give the girl a
personality based on how you play the game but I’d guess that comes later, this
was a really dull episode. Honestly I have nothing against otome games, they
actually look like they could be fun to play but watching someone play a dating
game is not my kind of entertainment so I’m passing on this one. Honestly the
only good thing I can say about this is that the episode was ridicously
colorful and rainbow-y, other than that it seems like not even Brain’s Base
could save this title (and considering it’s been a number of years since Akikan
Brain’s Base is overdue to produce a terrible show).
For those people who don’t mind
watching what’s basically a Let’s Play of a Visual Novel can find Amnesia
streaming on Crunchyroll and Sentai has licensed the show as well
Chihayafuru 2
Continuing
from where the first season left off, Chihaya and the rest of her club continue
to improve their karuta skills while persuing their personal goals in the game.
If the
year in review post didn’t make it clear, I fell hard for this show and I’m
thrilled that it’s back for more (I think it’s 2 cour but I don’t think I’ve
seen an actual source for it). I haven’t had a chance to check the staff list
but I think some people were changed (I heard it was the people in charge of the
series composition, I’m not 100% sure what they actually do to be honest) but
the director is the same and this first episode was a seamless transition from
the first season to the second. It starts in a good place, shows how Chihaya
has already grown, and introduces us to one of the two new club members (the
girl Sumire) whom I’m trying to like. I already know from the promo art that
she’s here to stay, so I at least need to tolerate her, and her inner thoughts
are at least honest about her goals so that makes it easier to like her (plus,
she immediately picked up on the meaning of one of the poems and has a great
line, “I don’t want to write poems about regret!” which means that oddly enough
she might be in just the right club). Now to hope that the pacing and
everything else remains as solid as it was in the first season.
Despite my regular pleas the series
has yet to be licensed, however Crunchyroll is streaming it (and may
have been forced to announce it earlier than they planned because of the number
of people bugging them about it, I’m not sorry).
Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East
Several
years ago a village burned down under strange circumstances and there were
three survivors who were taken in by the local church. However, given that the
two boys who survived aren’t exactly normal, it seems like there are even more
mysteries surrounding them than the local villagers have guessed.
To be
honest I’m not sure what this show is trying to do yet, on one of the forums I
frequent someone posted a summary of the original novel (which was odd) and
then speculated how that had translated into the manga (which the anime is
based on) which was also odd. So I’m having to give it the three episode trial
here, so far it was actually more entertaining/engaging than I expected but I’m
just hoping it doesn’t go so far that it becomes cheesy.
In a move most people probably
expected, Hakkenden has been licensed by Sentai and is being
streamed by Crunchyroll.
Maoyuu (Maoyuu Maoh Yuusha Archenemy
and Hero)
Based on
a novel that was originally serialized in 2ch threads, Hero has struggled to
get to the demon lands where he plans to end the war between humans and demons
by killing the demon king. Who then turns out to be a very scholarly demon
queen who procedes to lecture and prove to him how killing her won’t change
anything for the better and, through the power of economics, will actually make
things worse for his homelands. She then tries to seduce bring him over
to her side to help her end the war in a way that won’t destroy both of their
countries.
Everyone
has probably already seen this show compared to Spice and Wolf and is
sick of it but seriously guys, if S&W was micro-economics then this
is macro-economics which holds up fairly well under scrutiny (or so I’m told, economics
is not my strong point). The art is an odd mixture of good (lots of detailed
backgrounds with textures over them that mimic the original novel art) and the
bad (CGI people everywhere!) maybe if they had fewer boob jiggles they could
fix this which I hope doesn’t get even worse as the story goes on. I’m a
bit worried that the story is only slated for 12 episodes since when the 2ch
threads were edited into an actual book it ended up being rather dense and the
opening sequence shows events all the way up to where the Kotowaru!
Manga is and I have no idea how they’re getting there in only 12 episodes, much
less beyond that.
Maoyuu has not been licensed yet but is
streaming on Crunchyroll for interested parties.
Tamako Market
An anime original story from Kyoto
Animation, Tamako’s family owns a mochi store in a shopping arcade and she’s
now being followed around by a talking parrot from a far off land.
I’m not
exactly sure what I just watched, I’m fairly sure it wasn’t a parody but it
certainly seemed like it at times and at others, well, it was just a bit bland.
I remember another blogger (I honestly can’t remember who) saying that they
might be more interested in the show if Tamako was an elementary school kid
instead of a high schooler(? don’t think she’s in middle school anyway) and I
have to agree, if the show is going to be sweet and simple why not age down the
character so it feels less forced? Although even that wouldn’t be enough to
keep me interested in the show, I also recall reading what the original pitch
for the show was like (supposedly, it was more fantasy-esque) and that probably
would have kept my attention, at this point I’ll spend my time watching other
things instead.
Tamako Market is streaming for US/Canadian
audiences on The Anime Network’s website since Sentai has
licensed this show as well.
Okay
then, what’s carrying over from the fall season that’s keeping me from
completely losing faith in this season? Quite a few things it turns out!
Blast of Tempest
By now we’ve passed where I stopped
reading the manga and it’s been a pretty wild ride. I’m not exactly sure why
there was some anime original stuff (how Yoshino and Mahiru met) in there,
padding so the twist matched up with the halfway mark I guess, and I have no
idea from here on out what’s anime original. So that’ll be interesting, often I
can tell and I’m almost positive that’s what’s going to happen since Bones
really likes to do anime only endings. The problem is, lately I haven’t liked
any of their endings (for either shows that are adaptions where they’ve had to
create endings or the shows that were anime original from the start) and that’s
what’s really going to define if I want to buy this show or not.
From the New World
I’m liking show a bit more now but
man the pacing is just a bit uneven. I think part of my problem is that, upon
reflection, the story really is from Saki’s point of view (even during
flashbacks or when the characters split up we only know what happens when they
relate it to Saki) and she’s an accidental unreliable narrator. So it’s rather
frustrating to see timeskips where the characters don't remember much about
other really important events and I really wish they had included a few scenes
to show the viewers that yes, the characters are being manipulated, this isn’t
the characters trying to fool the system. But in any case, we’ve one more
timeskip coming up and I’m hoping that once the (remaining, I’m totally
expecting everyone to be dead by the end of this) characters are adults that
that problem will be gone and that I’ll enjoy the show even more.
Psycho-Pass
Well I’ve fallen for this show
pretty hard. The setting is still a bit shaky at times (thankfully some fans
pieced together that it’s around 100 years in the future which in my mind is
far enough along for a major societal shift that would explain the people
allowing this psycho-pass system and not revolting, too bad I can’t say that
about all of the technology though) but I like the characters. There seems to
be two opinions of Akane, a positive and more negative one, and I take a more
positive view of her (that she’s smart but young and still learning, and just
can’t shoot a shotgun one-handed her first time) and I’m wondering what exactly
she’ll develop into. The show is also slowly fleshing out it’s side characters
and as long as it keeps doing that and keeps world-building I think I’ll be
happy with it, no matter how it ends.
Robotics;Notes
So it appears R;N is taking a cue
from it’s older sibling Steins;Gate and waited until around the
second half to really pull out the stops and go crazy, if that
trailer for the second half is anything to go on. I’m content to let the plot
build up and see how it all comes together and so far I’m happy with what it’s
done and the pace it’s set, now to see if the writing in the second half will
be at least as good (and hopefully stronger) for the last bit.
Space Brothers
Are we really entering the last part
of the show now? I ask this because I found out recently that the show has
been, padding itself out so we’re only on around the 8th or 9th
volume of the manga out of a planned 30-ish
volumes. I’m mostly happy with the pace set (just wish it would speed up a
bit!) and it’s still quite refreshing to see adult characters be the main
characters and the show has fleshed out everyone really well. Heck, at this
rate they’ll have to make the cast even larger just so they have more people to
flesh out, think this is the first time I’m saying that!
