The Anime Thread

[viper37]

Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans

The fights are good.  There is some kind of overarching story hidden somewhere in that show.  However, the episode's plot are all over the place and it's difficult to follow.

The fights are very well done.  Unlike other series, you don't feel like all these machines&pilots are mince meat with the exception of a few models.  Sure, it's Gundam.  A few machines are over the top, but they can still be dropped down by overwhelming force.

I still prefer the other Gundam series I've seen.

[Josquius]

I'm trying to watch Mob Psycho.
Interesting retro 90s styling.
But it just doesn't hit the One Punch Man high notes I was promised.

[Monoriu]

Both Mob Psycho and Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans are on my (long) plan to watch lists. 

[Monoriu]

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, or Tensura for short.  Satoru is a 37 year old Japanese salaryman who died a heroic death protecting his younger colleague from a random terrorist knife attack.  Due to his status as a virgin and his various dying thoughts, he is reincarnated in an RPG fantasy world as a slime, but with a "predator skill" that allows him to absorb abilities of creatures that he devours, and a "game guide" of sorts that lives inside his head.  He encounters an imprisoned dragon in a cave, and made a deal with him.  The dragon gave him a name (in this world, being named increases a magic creature's power significantly), and the slime "devoured" the dragon, allowing it to leave the cave.  The slime then attempted to have a second chance in life in this new world.  In the process, he gradually built up his abilities, a multi-ethnic nation, and alliances with different races and countries.

It is a fun little adventure.  I particularly like the nation-building aspects.  While the protagonist is once again over-powered and is almost like a demi-god, he is actually more concerned with protecting his subjects, ensuring that his nation produces goods that could be traded with others, and building up diplomatic relationships with various factions.  He fights where necessary and there are more than a few fights, but he isn't out to save the world, slay the devil lord and play hero.  It is on the light-hearted side of the scale most of the time.  A super-powered slime is a unique concept.  The huge cast of supporting characters of many different races meaningfully contribute to the complex web of relationships.  The production values are decent, and it can be quite funny.

It is also a bit too slow for my taste, and it isn't exactly the "show, don't tell" type of anime.  A slime is supposed to be the weakest creature in typical RPGs, and it should have been fun to see how he copes in that state.  Yet he is made way overpowered almost from day 1.  So the slime aspect is only in terms of appearance.  While the individual arcs are fun, there isn't an overall, compelling plot.  The concept art can give the impression that the show is a fanservice harem.  The slime's sexuality is a complicated issue.  He definitely considers himself male, and he does gain a human body mid-show.  Yet the human body is female, and he doesn't have reproductive organs as a slime...

Decent show that does what it sets out to achieve, but don't expect too much. 

[Monoriu]

The Promised Neverland.  The protagonists are a group of children under 12 who all live in an orphanage, headed by an adult "mama".  Mama takes good care of them.  They are happy, well-fed, well-educated, and have plenty of opportunities to play.  The only rules are they cannot leave the orphanage and cannot get close to the walls and gate.  The children are sooner or later adopted, at which point they leave the place.  Turns out, it is all a lie.  The children are raised as "free range" livestock for the consumption of demons.  They are killed and eaten when they are "adopted".  The show chronicles the children's attempts to escape.

I predict this will be a strong contender for 2019 anime of the year.  Trilling, excellent atmosphere, psychological games of cat and mouse between the children and the adults, good production values, emotional roller-coaster ride, unique premise.  The children face many obstacles and moral choices: are the 11 year olds going to escape by themselves or take the younger ones with them?  How are they going to deal with the beacons buried in their bodies?  Is there a spy working for the adults among the children?  How to get across the wall undetected?  Should they tell the truth to other children?   Who can they trust?  What to do after escaping the orphanage?  When to escape?  The longer they wait, the more thorough the planning could be but the chance of children being "adopted" increases.  Meanwhile, the adults aren't just sitting there doing nothing.  They know their secret has leaked, but they also need to make sure the higher ups can enjoy their meal when they want it. 

I like the fact that the children are normal.  They don't have any superpowers, magic, or gundams.  They can't just fight their way out, and there is no hope of rescue.  They have no choice but to engage in a battle of wits, and they do make mistakes along the way.  The anime avoids an over-reliance on backstories and flashbacks to move the plot along.  These are normal children and this is the situation they find themselves in.  What do they do? 

This is easily the best show of the season. 

[Monoriu]

These are the new anime that I intend to start watching in the Spring 2019 (April - June) season.



Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2.  Latest installment of the international blockbuster.  I expect that they finally reveal the secrets behind the world setting. 



Isekai Quartet.  Isekai means "alien world".  This is one of the craziest anime premises I have ever seen.  This is basically using the characters of four popular but unrelated Isekai anime shows, put them together, presumably in a school setting, and see what happens.  The four anime shows are Overlord, Kono Subarashi Sekai ni Shukufuku wo, Re: Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu and Youjo Senki.  I have watched the first three and like the characters, so I need to watch this.  It is like putting characters from Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Star Wars in a classroom and see what happens.  I expect this to be made in official fan fiction style. 



Strike Witches 501 Butai Hasshin Shimasu.  Strike Witches is a long-running and controversial anime.  Basically, in this world WWII never happened.  Instead, forces from both the Axis and Allied sides fought together against invading aliens.  While conventional militaries work against the aliens, the best way to deal with them are magical girls who are essentially anthropomorphisms of WWII fighters.  And they don't wear pants or skirts (in-story explanation is that this allows them to launch without unnecessary delays).  Anyway, the story of the 501 witches unit was more or less completed many years ago, and they moved on to tell the story of the 502 unit a few years ago.  This show goes back to the popular 501 unit, and this time will focus on their everyday lives like cooking.  Or Strike Witches, slice of life. 



One Punch Man Season 2.  One Punch Man started as an attempt to make fun of anime, by giving story-breaking powers to the protagonist - he can defeat any enemy with a single punch.  Somehow he remained a hero with bad publicity, as most people thought he was a cheater who tried to steal glory from the real heroes. 

[Josquius]

I'm excited for new One punch man and attack on titan.
I hear the production of OPM has been troubled however. Very low animation quality, poor production . Fingers crossed it isn't so.

[Monoriu]

I'm excited for new One punch man and attack on titan.
I hear the production of OPM has been troubled however. Very low animation quality, poor production . Fingers crossed it isn't so.

There is a change of studio from Madhouse to JC Staff.  Madhouse has a strong reputation.  JC Staff is a big studio, but the quality is less consistent than Madhouse.  Doesn't mean they can't produce good work, it is just that they don't nail it every time.  But given the status of One Punch Man as an international hit, I hope the powers that be will allocate an appropriate budget. 

[Monoriu]

Saga of Tanya the Evil.  The protagonist was originally a ruthless 30-something Japanese salaryman.  He was murdered by someone whom he fired.  Just before his death, a "Being X" froze time and accused him of not being pious enough, and he stood defiant.  Being X decided to punish him by reincarnating him into the body of Tanya, a little girl, set in an alternate history universe.  Imagine WWI happened in the 20s, this time with the German Empire as the clear victim, being invaded from all sides.  Magic exists, and all countries have formed sorcerer battalions, largely replacing fighters.  Tanya is born with incredible magic potential, and she retains all memories in her previous life.  Despite being an 11 year old girl, she has the mindset of a ruthless adult.  She enlists in the Imperial German sorcerer force and uses her experience and ability to quickly rise through the ranks.   

I know, I know.  This premise is crazy even by anime standards.  That's why I initially refused to watch this, but the good reviews convinced me otherwise.  Having watched it now, I can say this is a very strong show.  There is nothing...naughty about it.  No bathing scenes, no swimsuits, no sex jokes, no romance, no harem, nothing.  Tanya almost always appears in the uniform shown above.  The focus from start to finish is on the military and alternative history aspects.  The WWII German invasion of Oslo is re-fought, this time with sorcerer battalions as the advance guard.  The trench warfare of the WWI western front is shown onscreen in glorious detail.  V1 rockets are brought forward.  One of the strongest aspects of the show is the visuals.  Battle scenes are expensive, but this show does a superb job in animating the aerial battles, the military aspects and hardware. 

The other thing that puts people off is the "evil" part.  I think "ruthless" is a far more appropriate label.  Tanya has no qualms about killing large numbers of enemies in the battlefield, or bombing armament production facilities.  But she takes pains to follow the rules of war, and she takes reasonable care of her team.  At least, the ones who obey and respect her    There are no nazis or concentration camps in this show.  Aside from her military career, Tanya's real concern is her ongoing but unseen battle with Being X.  Tanya can't do anything about a supernatural, omnipresent being, but she can refuse to pay respects to him.  While Being X makes numerous interventions to make life for Tanya (and Germany) difficult, he also grants Tanya powers if she submits and prays.  So Tanya is torn between her atheist, defiant self who wants to reject all deities, and her desire for magical and military prowess.   

This is a boon for people who are interested in alternate history, if you can get past the 11 year old little girl as protagonist premise, and the "evil" label. 

[Monoriu]

A Certain Magical Index Season 3.  This is based on one of the most popular light novels in Japan.  This is basically a fantasy world where all myths are true.  There exists a "school city" where the bulk of the residents are espers and they believe their powers are based on science.  On the other hand, Europe seems to be ruled by different religions who use different kinds of magic.  The UK for example is ruled by Queen Elizabeth who can cut through the earth with a simple swing of her magical sword.  The protagonist is a level 0 living in school city.  The most powerful espers are ranked level 5.  Level 0 means he has no apparent special power.  Except his right hand is an "imagine breaker" who can negate any and all special power and magic. 

We have waited like 10 years for Season 3, and to say that it is a disappointment is an understatement.  The Index world is huge, with hundreds of named characters, innumerable on-going and unresolved plot threads, at least three major viewpoint protagonists, dozens of different factions and groups, and at least two spin-off shows in the real world.  The obvious problem is they try to cram far too much material into 26 episodes.  I think they need at least 12-13 additional episodes to explain just what is going on.  As it is, the logic leaps are very liberal.  While I know who the characters are (as opposed to Tokyo Ghoul where I have no idea), most of the time I have to admit I don't know what is happening.  Rewatching doesn't help; studying previous seasons doesn't help.  The problem is there is insufficient time to flesh out the story.  It only works if I turn off my brain and stop worrying about why things happen.  One character spent most of the season trying to find a cure for a little girl.  After 20+ episodes, his internal monologue allowed him to figure out that he had always had the ability to cure her.  By singing.  Yeah, just like that.  Even though the visuals are above average, the show is a pain to watch. 

[Josquius]

Saga of Tanya the Evil.  The protagonist was originally a ruthless 30-something Japanese salaryman.  He was murdered by someone whom he fired.  Just before his death, a "Being X" froze time and accused him of not being pious enough, and he stood defiant.  Being X decided to punish him by reincarnating him into the body of Tanya, a little girl, set in an alternate history universe.  Imagine WWI happened in the 20s, this time with the German Empire as the clear victim, being invaded from all sides.  Magic exists, and all countries have formed sorcerer battalions, largely replacing fighters.  Tanya is born with incredible magic potential, and she retains all memories in her previous life.  Despite being an 11 year old girl, she has the mindset of a ruthless adult.  She enlists in the Imperial German sorcerer force and uses her experience and ability to quickly rise through the ranks.   

I know, I know.  This premise is crazy even by anime standards.  That's why I initially refused to watch this, but the good reviews convinced me otherwise.  Having watched it now, I can say this is a very strong show.  There is nothing...naughty about it.  No bathing scenes, no swimsuits, no sex jokes, no romance, no harem, nothing.  Tanya almost always appears in the uniform shown above.  The focus from start to finish is on the military and alternative history aspects.  The WWII German invasion of Oslo is re-fought, this time with sorcerer battalions as the advance guard.  The trench warfare of the WWI western front is shown onscreen in glorious detail.  V1 rockets are brought forward.  One of the strongest aspects of the show is the visuals.  Battle scenes are expensive, but this show does a superb job in animating the aerial battles, the military aspects and hardware. 

The other thing that puts people off is the "evil" part.  I think "ruthless" is a far more appropriate label.  Tanya has no qualms about killing large numbers of enemies in the battlefield, or bombing armament production facilities.  But she takes pains to follow the rules of war, and she takes reasonable care of her team.  At least, the ones who obey and respect her    There are no nazis or concentration camps in this show.  Aside from her military career, Tanya's real concern is her ongoing but unseen battle with Being X.  Tanya can't do anything about a supernatural, omnipresent being, but she can refuse to pay respects to him.  While Being X makes numerous interventions to make life for Tanya (and Germany) difficult, he also grants Tanya powers if she submits and prays.  So Tanya is torn between her atheist, defiant self who wants to reject all deities, and her desire for magical and military prowess.   

This is a boon for people who are interested in alternate history, if you can get past the 11 year old little girl as protagonist premise, and the "evil" label. 

It's like they're specifically targeting weebs.

[Syt]

I've started reading The Vinland Saga and watching the old Fist of the North Star series.

[Josquius]

Heard about promised neverland elsewhere and decided to check it out.
It seems very good indeed. 'Just one more episode' stuff. Most welcome after my recent disastrous forays into anime

I've started reading The Vinland Saga a

Wow...that sounds bizzare.

nd watching the old Fist of the North Star series.

I used to love that. The English version suddenly just stops right as its getting interesting

[Syt]

Wow...that sounds bizzare.

It's my violent/gory sword fighting fix what with Berserk being released at glacial pace.

[jimmy olsen]

Vinland saga is excellent