Fall 2015 Anime – Early Thoughts

Time for one of these first episode thoughts posts for the new season, and what a season it already is. I have to say I’m surprised at how many mecha shows popped up this season, it feels like there was no mecha this entire year and suddenly EVERYTHING IS MECHA AND HOTBLOODED. Everything is also PRETTY DAMN GOOD, well that or really shitty, almost nothing this time around is just ‘alright’ though there are a few exceptions. On the other hand it’s a season full of a lot of baseless hate coming from retards that I just can’t understand, but whatever.

Seraph 2 isn’t included on here because it just has such a late airing date compared to everything else, besides it’s a continuation – I’ll go ahead and say I’ll probably enjoy it as I did season 1. Also, everything here is based on EPISODE 1 even if more are out. This looks really long, but remind yourself it’s shorter than most of my reviews! I also say cool like 500 times.

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Lance N’ Masques

This is one I already went over HERE.

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Heavy Object

This is another one I’ve made a post for HERE.

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Attack on Titan Junior High

This is yet another with it’s own post HERE.

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Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans

I wanted to make a stand-alone post for this too, but I didn’t…because? I probably should have as this is PRETTY FUCKING GREAT. This is a show being made with two of my favorites in charge – Mari Okada doing the writing and Tatsuyuki Nagai directing. I’ll admit, Gundam itself isn’t really a favorite of mine, I do have a history with it but not nearly the amount that many others have. I’ve seen bits and pieces of the older shows, kind of hated them (especially the original, it’s fucking putrid), and really only ever got any enjoyment out of Wing (sorry if that somehow offends you) and 08th MS Team. I’m just not that big into mecha in general and these shows were always really badly animated, badly drawn, poorly acted, and had some of the worst pseudo-political bullshit imaginable along with the retarded “boy finds a giant super-special robot and becomes the hero” trope. I still haven’t seen the one with the hot mom running the plamo shop, though I’d like to at some point.

With Okada and Nagai on board, I felt like I couldn’t miss out on this one though. I can’t guess how hardcore Gundam fans will feel about this (probably bitch and moan), but this feels pretty fucking cool to me. I like everyone on the cast already – even Biscuit’s flubby ass and even the more strange character designs have already grown on me. The main character has a feeling of not being THE main character, but the secondary lead to the cool ass captain of their group, which I really like a lot. I’ve always been a fan of main characters who aren’t the most typical position in the cast and he pulls it off pretty well, especially by not talking much and being someone whose always followed this other guy – which I have a feeling is going to be a theme in the show (him learning to be independent). Actually speaking of those two, they REALLY remind me a LOT of Simon and Kamina which is pretty cool all on its own, they have a great dynamic already but it does make me pretty worried about the survival rate of this dude. The mech design so far is good too, with a mix of non Mobile Suit “Mobile Workers” that are pretty cool little things, normal Mobile Suits, and of course a Gundam which has a pretty cool and very “Gundam” design to it – all of which I hope they keep around, as I really like this mix of the lesser mechs in with everything else.

There are already your typical Gundam politics and intrigue going on but they feel a bit more interesting, there’s an entire main cast of child soldiers, there’s a princess who clearly has her heart set in the right place but is already being thrown into chaos because of that, there’s some cool action and dialogue, and then there’s the quality of the writing which has already built a cast I feel I know and care about, great directing, amazing music, and just an overall fucking fantastic package. I actually am extremely excited to see more of this – which might be true for a lot of shows this season but this more than the rest, it’s the first time I’ve really felt this way with a Gundam series too. I mean seriously this first episode was amazing and introduced not only characters while also developing them and their relationships very quickly yet very well, but also gave us a perfect teaser to a lot of the story and intense action we’re about to dive into.

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JK-Meshi

This show is getting a lot of flack for looking like a flash animation from 2002 at best. I’ll admit that if this was full or even half length I wouldn’t be able to tolerate it – but as a short the looks don’t bother me at all and I vastly prefer this over the godawful shit that was the third season of Recorder to Randoseru. The content however is completely fine; not just fine, it’s actually interesting and kinda fun, they even give you a little cooking idea to try out and go through some random history. I enjoyed it and if you can look past the way it looks it’s not a bad short at all.

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Comet Lucifer

A guy using yet-another-future-hover-scooter-thing (why are those in every sci-fi anime?) proceeds to go speeding around to get bread for a guy he works for but runs into a cop who he seems to know and then runs into a girl he knows who is running from a guy in a giant floating car who then explains she’s run away from trying on wedding dresses which she replies to by quickly explaining how they are being forced to marry by their parents and she doesn’t want to but he does and we learn all 4 – yes, four, because there’s someone driving the car too inside it who then pops out to join in – know each other and are friends all while there’s an organization doing something underground and seems to be bad guys but we don’t know who they are are doing something and then the husband guy thinks its a great idea to ram his wife barely standing on a hover-scooter into the side of a freeway at high speeds to stop her and they get launched just as something happens underground because of this organization and they fall into a giant sinkhole and in the sinkhole they see a crystal and this crystal is something the mc was looking for and inside the crystal is a cute girl who comes floating into his arms as what looks like a spider based Metal Gear comes running at them and they run away and end up cornered but then a gundam shows up and stops it and the episode ends but I almost forgot it also started off with some old guy talking about birds coming from space or crevices and the boy picking rocks off of a cliff.

Why did I make that a massive run-on sentence with confusing structure? It’s how watching this show feels, actually that was probably more understandable and less hectic. It’s still not bad though and I somehow kind of think it’s alright, I just hope they can fix this insane pacing problem of shoving ABSOLUTELY FUCKING EVERYTHING in there. The next few episodes will give a much better idea about this without a doubt.

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Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan

A cute short-episode series about a hot spring spirit or something coming into physical form as a cute young girl. It’s a nice and fun little thing, and I appreciate that the MC took the time to grope the shit out of the girl he likes after he was launched onto her instead of just exclaiming how sorry he was while lifting his hands off of her. A good way to spend a few minutes.

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Gakuen Toshi Asterisk

This is a show that I tend to hate 90% of the time, but I still like giving some of them chances from time to time especially in slower seasons like this one (which is why I actually tried TWO ecchi harems this season). It isn’t outright bad, I went in expecting some good ecchi and action as I knew it had battling and stuff, and figured it could be a mediocre time waster with some fun hijinks and tits. However, the art style just isn’t right to make it really sexy to look at even when they have a girl in nothing but her undies right in the first couple of minutes. It just feels flat rather than that shiny, soft, smooth and often times juicy look that I prefer. Then the battles that I thought were some dramatic cheap story to try and make this a legitimate show – turns out they’re just duels via augmented reality with lightsabers. It felt cheesy and overly cartoony and really put me off. I’m sure there’s more going on, especially when the main girl almost gets shot, but there’s nothing here that interested me. I’ll say if you’re into this sort of thing it might actually be okay, there was nothing that really bothered me about it.

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Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

My main thought throughout the entire first episode was simple: “What the FUCK is this?”. This is still where I’m at but I don’t think it’s in a bad way, the show seems interesting and pretty good so far it just has SO MUCH in it – but I didn’t feel like it left me behind or was rushed like Comet Lucifer. It seems to be a mix of every “hero” type of anime out there. There’s mecha, there’s sentai stuff, then there’s super-humans, literal aliens, a magical witch girl (transformation included), a dog that turns into a boy, and who knows what the fuck else is going to show up. It’s kind of great and feels like a really unique mix of so many things you’d never see together typically which makes it intriguing. Speaking of intrigue, there’s some of that going on as well and honestly the story feels pretty interesting right off the bat and they do a good job of showing a flash-forward and then keeping you wondering why things eventually get to that point.

The art is essentially Shaft done by Bones which comes out far less offensively shitty and actually pretty stylish at times and looks great. I kind of don’t know what else to say about this because there’s just so much shit going on and it all feels kind of surreal – but I DO like it quite a bit already and I have to say it’s very much worth trying at this point. Name still bugs me though, just put the fucking “n” there.

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One Punch Man

I had no idea what to expect out of this one – I knew the popularity of the manga and a lot of people really loving it, but I’ve never given a shit about hero stuff, sentai, or even DBZ style anime, so I didn’t know if this being a satire of that would really work for me. It turns out this is actually legitimately funny and also REALLY cool at the same time, even for me. The lead character is very likable even though he’s got a typical complaint of being too strong and wanting a worthy opponent, they play it off well instead of fully cliched and they turn it into a running gag (actually, the main plot) that can also end up with some cool moments. The big battle during the last several minutes was really awesome and the music was great, it gets you into that fighting action-y spirit – even if it’s not truly how it seems in the end. I never felt bored and everything seems good here.

It’s also worth noting the animation, especially during that last part, is phenomenal and just makes it feel that much more hot blooded. Also, I really fucking hope there is at least a finale – if not more than that – that’s actually serious and badass throughout because really that last part is just DAMN cool and I need more of that, not that I mind the often genuinely hilarious comedy aspects at all though. This and Gundam Orphans are definitely the two shows I’m looking forward to seeing more of the most and I’m still VERY surprised at how much I like this.

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Beautiful Bones – Sakurako’s Investigation

“I’VE GOT A BONE TO PICK WITH YOU, BOY” or so Sakurako would say, were she a boss battle, but she’s not. She’s an insane woman who loves boys, death metal, and bones – well the boys part is just my hopes for those summaries that lead me wrong with “his girlfriend” when they’re not a couple at all. This lady loves bones, this boy loves being around this lady because she’s weird, both are surprisingly likable right off the bat, and this show looks fucking gorgeous – not quite UFOtable but damn if it isn’t pretty close.

Sure, it’s one of the best looking tv series I’ve seen visually, but what else? It’s a mystery series that seems to be primarily about finding human remains and learning facts about this person, their death, their life, and learning a bit about bones as well. Alongside that, at least in this episode, she helps the police investigate some cases. It does a really cool thing where we’re mentally transported back to the scene with the bodies and continue the investigation, with her explaining her thoughts and theories and showing it step by step. I really like this and hope the episodes all feature similar investigation scenes because it was really interesting and felt like a mix of third person detective games and phoenix wright. I also really appreciate that the show (and herself) seems to be aware that just because she has theories she’s not a retard – she simply gives them possible situations that played out and explains how that’s the likely case and then tells them to investigate it further along those lines. She doesn’t just say THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED, but this is possibly what happened so you should look into it thoroughly. The relationship between Sakurako and the boy also interests me a lot – she seems to have more interest in him than he realizes but I don’t know how he feels about her and actually even HE doesn’t know how he feels about her, I want to see where that ends up going along with the rest of the show as well.

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Magical Somera-chan

One of the most weird, crazy, and fun shorts I’ve seen has to be Ai Mai Mi seasons 1 and 2 – it’s a really fucking weird ‘random’ style comedy that luckily works rather than feeling obnoxious or cringy and I loved it. This is by the same creator and safe staff and studio as well, so I couldn’t help but look forward to it even though it’s just a short. It’s LITERALLY Ai Mai Mi again just with new characters, more violence, and actually less weird shit somehow.

Well, okay, maybe not less weird shit.

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Anti-Magic Academy: 35th Test Platoon

This is that second ecchi-harem I mentioned trying out earlier, and unlike Asterisk I…kind of like this? It’s pretty much delivering exactly what I was hoping; every girl has big tits, the cast is likable-enough so far, there are some funny bits, and surprisingly it comes with an (so far) actually fairly serious story.

On top of the magic vs guns, there’s also a sword in play by the protagonist who can be kinda cool and a girl who went from a top-tier Inquisitor thing to this shitty platoon because, and I actually really like this about her, she basically acts as the judge, jury, and executioner. She just kills people when she gets too mad – not in an edgy way at all, but like in this episode they find people including what seems to be children chopped up into pieces with just knives and probably while they were alive given there’s no other wounds. When she sees THAT she does go right out and try to take care of the guys they had just arrested by way of shooting them to death, it’s also why she got punished as she murdered people for similar fucked up things before.

If that doesn’t explain this for you, yes, this is actually a real show and can be kind of dark already (not to mention the fact they have a loli with a fucking anti-materiel sniper rifle specifically to blow heads into chunks), and the story and character interactions so far – while definitely having some fun bits both comical and fanservicey – feels very much like an actual show that happens to have ecchi-harem aspects to it, rather than the other way around. And, actually, this has surprisingly little of those aspects – only about the amount you’d find in any typical anime to begin with, and hell there’s not even a single girl who wears revealing clothes or anything that simple, they’re all very covered up actually. This is really not a “watch with your dick out” type, nor is it a “turn off your brain” type, I actually kind of enjoy it a good amount especially for what I came into it expecting (shit).

And when the service does come, it ain’t bad.

One thing I did notice that kind of bugged me throughout was that this has some great seiyuu…yet none seem to fit their role at all. They do a good job of course but they just don’t have voices that fit these characters, it’s strange to see something with almost a full slate of poorly casted roles. And, oh, yup – add this to the list of mecha show this season because they definitely have them here too. Magic, guns, swords, mechs, and “ballistics”.

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The Perfect Insider

I really hate Inio Asano, the guy writes like shit and caters to the lowest type of pseudo-intellectual imaginable. He’s a pathetic human being and what he “creates” is even lower than himself. I saw the art for this and decided immediately not to touch it noticing quickly it was his, having tried almost everything else he’s ever done and finding the only thing remotely not GODAWFUL shit to be Solanin – a clear fluke given nothing else he’s done was close to that. Luckily, turns out this isn’t WRITTEN by him, he’s just the artist for the light novels written by someone else, and so my worries were gone. I still wasn’t sure what to expect and knew nothing but “it’s a mystery story”, but it definitely went from a big fat NO to some interest (plus with Rokka last season I’m kind of in the mood for mystery). Well, that and the fact it’s airing on the Noitamina slot which…well it used to be full of some of the best anime has to offer – nowadays it’s full of total trash, so it definitely holds less status but it still made me rethink skipping this.

This happens too.

The perfection inside of her is a mystery, but it’s got a pretty awful start. The most overused piece of classical music in history and nowadays only used by pretentious shit over mostly silent montages or monologues is used…well, exactly in the way I just said. We end up with a 12 year old looking girl who drives a million dollar supercar made out of horrible CG modeling after a long monologue of angsty pretentiousness. Asano’s art also is a glaring flaw for this show right away, any time faces are close enough to see detail they look godawful – his art isn’t terrible in manga but he can’t draw faces for anyone without making them look like a fat 8 year old and that definitely causes issues here. It doubly clashes with the rest of the art, as everything else looks normal but then you see this completely out of place chubby baby face on everyone with an art style that doesn’t match anything else about them or their world. The animation and art quality overall isn’t very good to begin with either.

I don’t like this. I mean holy shit is it ever boring, and I don’t mean “slow paced” I mean spending 15 minutes sitting in the office talking about where this guy buys his t-shirts and lots of pointless empty rhetoric that drones on and on without actually developing the characters in some meaningful way for us or pushing forward any sort of story.

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Dance with Devils

This show completely blindsided me, it’s probably the most “NOT AT ALL WHAT I EXPECTED” that I’ve ever experienced for anything at all. It’s a musical. Not only did I come into this having absolutely no clue that was the case and not ever expecting even 1% that an anime would be that, I can’t think of a full series that has EVER been a straight up musical. There’s been special episodes or OVAs that were musicals, and even real world musical adaptations of manga or anime…but an anime that is literally a musical throughout? I’ve never seen or heard of something like this and that makes me really love this – and I hate musicals. It’s just something I’ve long wondered about why it’s never been done and, well, it’s finally being done and it’s kind of fun. I can’t help but love when we’re on our way to school and suddenly we break into song that gives us backstory and personality information about the lead girl, and then the student council gets introduced through an extremely dramatic and silly whole thing of their own that makes who they are clear, and it just keeps happening and it can be hilarious but in a good way. I actually really like the way this show ended up coming out.

this motherfucker

As for the actual content of this, well, I think that’s not bad either. Honestly we don’t know much about the story yet but what we do know is there’s bad shit going on. It feels like someone took UtaPri and threw in drama, a more serious story, and vampires before turning it from an anime about singers featuring someone singing at least once an ep into an actual straight up musical with both vocal (duh) and sometimes very stage-play-esque events choreographed to music. Even the character designs feel similar to Utapri for everyone from the main girl to THE BOYZ. I kind of like this – it’s definitely DIFFERENT but I also enjoy all the stuff past just being such a huge oddity as well…but how much? Dunno yet. Really depends how it goes from here and how the musical stuff is handled, hopefully most of it’s integrated really well like the girl’s song early in the episode and the introduction.

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Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note

This is a 9-minutes-per-ep cute short that seems to be headed towards light mystery but is clearly more about this middle school girl learning to come out of her shell after never having friends or making connections with others and I suppose somewhat “finding herself” via this ‘detective’ group forming between her and the 4 boys in the special class she gets put in. It’s already really cute and the art has a lot of pop-up chibified fun which I always love and it’s done great here. The main cast seems simple enough and really everything does, this isn’t a hard thinking or serious show, it’s an enjoyable little nice feeling show for relaxin’ around.

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One-Punch Man in his natural form.

And well that’s it. I’m pretty happy with this season so far, even while being aware of how quick a show can become godawful there’s so many fantastic ones this time around I can’t help but be excited for whats to come throughout the next few months, at least in regards to anime. Lots of mechs and lots of really unique concepts showing up as well.

6+ mech shows, including any I just didn’t watch.