The Anime Thread

[Monoriu]

About a third of the way into this season, Kuma Miko and Flying Witch have both been outstanding. It's a tossup which is the season's overall best show, but i'll give the nod to Flying Witch since it is the more relaxing and peaceful of the two. Kuma Miko suffers from yankee infiltration.

Mayoiga has been much better than anticipated, while Joker Game, Haifuri, and Anne-Happy have all been very disappointing. Sakamoto Desu ga? lives up to its hype and is a fine show.

Uchuu Patrol Luluco continues INFERNO COP's tradition of excellence.

This is a very strong season in general. I would've been happy with just Flying Witch.

I agree this is a strong season with several very enjoyable shows. 

Iron Fortress of the Kabaneri.  This is basically an Attack on Titan clone, with trains.  The animation quality is top notch.  It is absolutely gorgeous to look at, and far surpasses many movies.  The story is also very engaging.  Totally immersive atmosphere.

My Hero Academia.  The premise can't be more cliched.  The wimpy protagonist works really hard to overcome his weakness as basically the only "normal" human in a world where most people have some kind of special power.  Despite the tired formula, the execution, characters and story are excellent.

Life in a Different World from Zero.  The show wasn't on my watch list, but I could only ignore the raving reviews for so long.  Another summoned to a fantasy world story.  It is unexpectedly dark.  The promotional art is so deceiving that getting people to watch it is like giving ice-cream with hidden nails to kids.  There are lots of time travel to the past to set right what once went wrong stories, and this is one of them.  What makes this stand out is that every failure and timeline is carefully documented, every time the main hero dies (which happens *very* often) is shown in gruesome detail. 

I am Sakamoto.  This is very refreshing.  Sakamoto is the coolest student in his class, and everything he does is cool.  His antics are 100% wacky and I can't recall any show like this.  It is not to be taken seriously, but it is very amusing to watch. 

Big Order.  My only disappointment of the season so far.  Tries too hard to be a show that is "similar but also different" from Future Diary.  Obviously inconsistent animation and plot developments that don't really make sense. 

[Lettow77]

Mono, I get the feeling that every season we just about split the airing anime in half between us. We hardly ever watch the same shows.

I suppose it guarantees languish the widest possible coverage.

[Monoriu]

Girls und Panzer der Film.  This is the movie of the hugely popular tank simulation anime.  It picks up where the anime ended, and is a massive commercial success.  It has grossed more than $2 billion yen, and is ranked third in all late night anime movie adaptations, just behind Love Live and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. 

For those of you who are not familiar with the Girls und Panzer universe, "tankery" is a female-only national sport popular with school girls (don't ask).  The girls operate historic tanks from WWII.  Teams from different schools battle each other regularly in matches.  Nobody dies, and the battles aren't real even in-universe.  The schools and the battlegrounds reside on the decks of gigantic aircraft carriers.  It sounds silly, but the anime is known for its realistically drawn tanks, crazy tank tactics, fluid animation and exciting tank battles.   

Girls und Panzer der Film is superbly done.  It has fulfilled its stated mission to present extremely well animated tank battles that is a sight to behold.  It does just enough in the drama department to let the audience get attached to the characters, give them a reason to fight, and it wastes no more time on non-tank stuff.  I think out of the 120 minutes, the actual shooting takes at least 75 minutes.  The storyboard design and animation are top notch.  It takes a lot of money and passion to do it, and they delivered.  It is also extremely nice to see [spoiler]all the rival schools from the TV anime team up with the protagonists against the university team [/spoiler]this time.  Granted, there isn't much in the way of a story, but that's not the show's selling point anyway. 

The blu-ray rip is out and is available anytime.  If you are into WWII tanks, this movie is a must-see.  Don't be put off by the girls stuff.  It is odd seeing school girls driving King Tigers and T-34s, but the girls are fully clothed at all times.  People watch the film for the tanks, not the girls. 

[Monoriu]

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom.  Phantom is the code name of a powerful mafia's top assassin.  One day, a Japanese tourist witnessed Phantom's latest work.  Though he was caught in the end, the mafia was impressed by his talent, reflexes and wit.  They wiped his memory and trained him to be Phantom's partner.  Phantom is revealed to be an emotionless teenage girl who also had her past memories removed.  The story is about the duo's adventures in the mafia's world of power struggles, never ending flow of missions, and their journeys to rediscover themselves. 

Phantom is one of the more depressing tales that comes out of Japan.  The show is frequently compared with Black Lagoon, another action and gun show that is known for its refusal to adopt typical anime moe elements.  It is a bit of a cult classic, and the reason a lot of people watch this is because it is based on a visual novel penned by Gen Urobuchi, of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate Zero and Psycho Pass fame.  Phantom is one of his earliest and less known works.  The show carried a lot of his trademarks that made him famous, dark, humourless, anybody can die, frequent twists and turns.  They got the atmosphere right as there is a feeling of constant danger looming somewhere. 

Overall it is well worth watching, but it isn't top-tier.  It requires more suspension of disbelief than usual, like how can a tourist be trained to become a top assassin.  The last arc is controversial.  [spoiler]They moved the setting back to a Japanese school and aged one of the characters a lot but not the others.  [/spoiler]I enjoyed the arc, but I can see why others don't. 

There are two versions of the anime around.  A 26 episode series released in 2009, and a 3-episode OVA released in the early 00s.  Suggest that the OVA be ignored as it is a cheap production with poor character designs that only tells a small part of the story.

[jimmy olsen]

Reminds me of Gunslinger Girl. The Italian government offers the family of terminally ill little girls the oppurnity to extend their lives a decade through experimental treatment. They do this by turning them into wind wiped cyborg assassins.  The girls with drugs and a creepy handler, this is one dark show.

[Lettow77]

The next season looks a little anemic, even accounting for the fact that summer isn't usually a good season for anime.

However, Amanchu!, written by the lovely lady who brought us Aria, will be the best show airing next season. Although I don't like sports anime, Battery looks to have a very strong assembly of talent and there's good reason to think it will be excellent.

Onara Gorou is the first serial production of an independent producer i've liked for a long time, so I'll enjoy that as well. But slim pickings past that. Flying Witch and Kuma Miko spoiled us this spring.

[Monoriu]

Big Order.  No, this isn't about food.  The story takes place in a world where some individuals have gained supernatural abilities.  They are called "Orders" as in they can bend the laws of physics by giving "orders", like stopping time.  This anime is supposed to be "Future Diary 2.0", as they share the same manga author.  Future Diary is made famous by the obsessive female protagonist, Yuno Gasai, that redefined how crazy an anime girlfriend can be. 

If there ever is an anime hall of shame, this rightly belongs to it.  The story is an incoherent mess.  The lead girl is supposed to hate the lead guy.  In one episode, she wants to kill him.  In the next, she saves his life.  In the following episode, they go out on a happy date sharing food.  Then she goes back to hating him for no apparent reason.  In one episode, the lead male "impregnates" another female by touching her bunny ears.  He then spent the episode trying to get medical help for her.  In the next episode, her "pregnancy" disappears.  Just like that. 

Everything about this show is inconsistent and arbitrary.  They battle nuclear warheads, then discover a person with an "Order" that negates said warheads at the end of the episode.  That person is never mentioned again.  The character relationships, powers, intentions are invented and discarded as the story progresses from episode to episode.  As if the production team decides what to do with the next episode only after the previous one has been aired. 

This isn't a mixed bag.  This is really bad. 

[Josquius]

I've never actually watched it, but it seems popular and I need something light.
Fullmetal Alchemist.
So the original and Brotherhood are just different takes on the same story right? Like the various Tenchi series? No relation to each other?
Not sure which to look at.

[Monoriu]

I've never actually watched it, but it seems popular and I need something light.
Fullmetal Alchemist.
So the original and Brotherhood are just different takes on the same story right? Like the various Tenchi series? No relation to each other?
Not sure which to look at.

First off Fullmetal Alchemist isn't exactly what I would consider light.  It can be a bit dark and depressing at times, but nothing too extreme. 

The original (or 2003) anime followed the first half of the manga.  At the midpoint of the anime, it overtook the manga.  So the second half was anime original and the story was different from the source material. 

A couple of years later, the manga was completed.  The same studio took the opportunity to remake the anime, from the beginning.  That's Brotherhood.  The first 14 episodes was a quick remake of the first part of the manga already covered in the first half of the 2003 anime.  The rest of the anime adapted the part of the manga that had yet to be adapted. 

I have watched both.  Brotherhood is a true classic and is better than the 2003 version (10/10).  Not surprising considering that it followed the manga much more closely.  But the 2003 version isn't bad.  It just isn't as good as Brotherhood, but it is enjoyable in its own right (9/10).  If you have time, watch both.  If not, watch Brotherhood. 

[Monoriu]

BTW, there are two Fullmetal Alchemist movies.  Conquerer of Shamballa and Sacred Star of Milos.  Shamballa is the sequel to the 2003 anime.  It won't make sense to you until you have completed the 2003 TV version.  Milos is a side story of the Brotherhood version.  I think it kinda spoils Brotherhood, so I suggest that you watch it after you have completed Brotherhood. 

[jimmy olsen]

I've never actually watched it, but it seems popular and I need something light.
Fullmetal Alchemist.
So the original and Brotherhood are just different takes on the same story right? Like the various Tenchi series? No relation to each other?
Not sure which to look at.

Something light!? 

[Hamilcar]

Jesus Christ, I just fell into the black hole that is "Legend of Galactic Heroes".

[Lettow77]

I've been rewatching it with my wife recently as well. It holds up mostly excellently, although they use the word "history" an amazing amount of times. I think my favorite was when someone worried the God of History would turn their backs upon them.

[Monoriu]

Jesus Christ, I just fell into the black hole that is "Legend of Galactic Heroes".

Why black hole?  There is a definitive ending, unlike the majority of anime shows.  110 episodes, plus 52 side story episodes, plus 3 movies.  That's a bit longer than most shows but is still shorter than monsters such as One Piece with like 750 episodes and counting

There are rumours that a new project is in the pipeline though.  No idea what it will be. 

Here is the link -

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-08-13/legend-of-the-galactic-heroes-gets-new-anime-project-by-production-i.g-in-2017/.91627

[Monoriu]

The next anime season will start next week, and these are the shows that I plan to watch.  Once again, the list is totally different from Lettow's 



Rewrite.  This is the only new anime that I plan to watch.  Based on a visual novel by Key Animation, a company that is dedicated to the noble goal of writing stories that make people cry.  That, and my favourite voice actress Chiwa Saito will voice the lead female role. 



Seven Deadly Sins- Signs of Holy War.  Seven Deadly Sins is one of the best shonen fight/adventure series that started in recent years.  The first season has already been aired.  This is not a true sequel as there are only four episodes in it.  It is more like a transition that throws a bone toward the fans while we wait for the proper second season. 



Arslan Second Season.  This is based on a novel written by none other than the author for Legend of Galactic Heroes.  The story is set in a Middle-east themed fantasy world.  Arslan is a prince who lost his kingdom to a foreign invader.  He is on a quest to reclaim the kingdom. 



Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 3rei.  Despite the name, it is actually the 4th season.  It is a spin-off of the mighty Fate series, focusing on Illya, the token mini-moe of Fate Stay Night.  In this alternate reality, she is a magical girl.  I am watching this largely out of a desire to watch everything Fate-related.