Summer 2016 Anime – Early Thoughts

This is a little later than I usually like to do these but I had a weird picks post that was late and now my computer died so completely that I had to build a whole new one and start from scratch and I kind of got roped into loving Resident Evil and been playing that during most of my free time that isn’t spent watching anime, so I’m behind again with this as well. Regardless, this is going to be a typical early thoughts one now a few episodes into what I’m watching (or dropped). Of course for some, don’t be surprised if I sort of repeat myself from the other post especially given some of them I had already seen an episode of at the time. As usual this only includes NEW TO THIS SEASON stuff, not continuing things like Jojo part 4 for example. I’ll say right off the bat MOST, not all, but the majority of stuff is how I expected it to go so far for better or worse. The amount I say absolutely does not denote how good or bad something is or how much I’m enjoying it, just how much I could figure out how to say or thought of at the time to mention.

I picked up like 26 shows this season (including those I dropped) so this is a bit longer than usual.

Tales of Zestiria the X

I already said a lot about this show – you can read that HERE and while it’s specifically about the first episode (now episode 00/prologue, though it’s literally integral to the plot and you have to see it so it’s kind of stupid to not call it 1) I have to say everything in that post is still true. Loads of new content, loads of great changes and additions to the already existing content that make an already great story and cast somehow far better – and an overall sense that this is definitely a RETELLING more than a simple adaptation. It’s also strange that this is listed for such a short run of episodes which, at this pace, will leave us not even a quarter of the way through the game’s story…which leads to another possibility in terms of that “retelling” and that would be that this is going to go a hugely different direction soon or it’ll just get another season greenlit but who knows. Anyway, it finally did catch up to where the game begins in episode 2 (so actually 3) yet even after it does about halfway into the ep it STILL continues adding new things and changing old ones to bolster them in various important ways. I said it already but this is without a doubt now a retelling of a similar story but completely revamped and told in very new changed yet very similar in other ways thing and that actually makes it even cooler.

I’d love to harp on this for like 5 more paragraphs and say how fucking fantastic it is but I don’t want to fill this up with all that especially when I already have a post doing that (linked earlier) which says everything I’d still say now. I VERY HIGHLY RECOMMEND WATCHING THIS even if you’ve never played the game or if you didn’t like it because, as I said, it really is more of a retelling. That means you won’t ruin the game for yourself if you haven’t played it because it’s NOT a loyal adaptation and has so much VASTLY different in VERY IMPORTANT WAYS, it also mean if you didn’t like the game there’s no reason to assume you won’t like this because EVEN THE CHARACTERS THEMSELVES are pretty different (most notably Alisha who is totally revamped and newly built, and that effort definitely paid off), and well if you liked the game and played it already this isn’t boring for you either because it’s actually incredibly exciting due to how different it is and how much it’s adding or changing. Rose is also cuter than ever, though sadly of course lacking Caitlin Glass’ voice though her Japanese counterpart is incredibly cute and fitting too.

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91 Days

This show is really fucking cool. You should watch it. A mob revenge story done incredibly well in every aspect; the atmosphere is always tense and grabs at you the moment you start an episode, the cast is all fantastic – even fango, a crazy edgelord who fits that role so well it actually makes him a great antagonist (though in this show everyone but the MC and his best friend are technically antagonists), and already a lot of progress has happened in cool ways. I REALLY don’t want to spoil anything about this show and so much has happened already, but this is definitely one of the must-sees of the season and will likely be up there by the end of the year too. It’s cool, it’s moody, it’s got a lot of great action, tense moments, character drama, and a fantastically tragic backstory giving the MC a perfect motive for a cool as fuck plot to play out from. It’s great seeing another sadly rare revenge story that doesn’t sugarcoat any of it, he’s killing mobsters but aside that it’s not like they paint them as bad or try making him seem like he’s doing something for the greater good or holding back because “then I’ll be just like them!”. No, Angelo doesn’t give a shit, he just wants revenge and he’s already started that – and the targets all are actually likable characters or even really fun cool guys. Cool. It’s cool.

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Active Raid 2

As good as the first season yet it raises a question for me: why go out of their way to take the lead character and toss her out of the picture? Asami is clearly going to end up relevant and around again but probably not nearly as prominently, and for now she just doesn’t really exist at all aside a commercial she made for Unit 9 (a great commercial) and appearing so far aside small cameos for one episode. I just see no reason for them to have taken her away when she was easily the very best thing about the show yet also didn’t take away from everyone else or anything – there was no reason to essentially remove her and push her to a inevitable cameo/support role though. I will admit it’s fun seeing how she ended up now in her leader role and how warped working at Unit 8 made her already very prideful self turn into someone who believes she herself is justice. It doesn’t ruin the show, doesn’t even hurt it in any meaningful way, it’s just something I don’t understand and feel wasn’t necessary at all and didn’t serve to “mix things up” either as the show is IDENTICAL to how it was before (not that that’s a bad thing) only now without her around. If they were going to do that I’d have preferred them making this season focus on her new unit and those new characters instead of just leaving us with the same people who are the same as always with 2 new fairly generic characters added into it when we could have went with the main character, formed a new group, and met a whole new cast. Not to say I don’t enjoy the entire original crew, but I’d rather have followed her story instead of lost her.

I do like seeing how Unit 8 went from, in season 1 being completely looked down on, underfunded, and nearly disbanded to now huge heroes for saving Japan and having everything they could ask for as far as new tech, new vehicles, new recruits, and so on. The best episode so far was the most recent one in which she’s the main focus, which just proves my point that she’s a positive and should be around more. Hopefully she is, but either way Active Raid is still a really silly fun mech-cop show that knows exactly what it is and executes it well.

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Battery

This aired super late so of all these I’ve seen the least of this, but I really like it so far and it definitely feels like the first time in a long time that something in the Noitamina time slot actually was deserving of it. Most baseball anime is focused on the team, Battery opts to be dedicated to three characters; the MC, his little brother who is sickly but wants to play baseball, and his new best friend who he forms the titular partnership with as his catcher. It’s all about the character drama and development here, with a lead who is a total dickhead to everyone (even his own family) for no reason aside wanting to seem strong, but that mask has already been broken a couple episodes in. I’m a bit worried about this little brother ending up DEAD because all the signs are there and they keep harping on how weak his body is (he even has like a mini-heart attack at one point just from jogging like less than a mile) but it’s also clear that the writer knew this was obvious and it’s already subverted that expectation once in a big way.

Anyway, it’s a show “about baseball” but it’s really about this new middle school boy learning about himself and growing up – a coming of age story fueled by the other two main characters and baseball as well as everyone, even parents, putting their responsibilities onto him. It’s really good so far and there are some good emotional scenes even within the first two episodes. The art design is great too thanks to being done (the art, not the writing though) by the same lady who did Hourou Musuko/Aoi Hana.

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The Morose Mononokean

I like it and it’s good. This post at the point I’m trying to write about this show is almost 6300 words long and I’m tired of writing it, but Mononokean is a very cute fun show and features the most adorable little fluffy fuzzball imaginable. The Mononokean itself is also super cute, especially for a room. Each episode so far is typically bittersweet and deals with a new youkai that needs help in some way and it’s very enjoyable so far and every youkai we’ve met with the exception of a certain capybara has been really likable even if a bit scary or strange. Recommended if you like cute critters and small touching stories from episode to episode that the main characters get involved with.

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Hatsukoi Monster

In a season with Sweetness and Lightning as well as Momokuri it’s hard to imagine something cuter than either, but I think Hatsukoi Monster might be the cutest thing of the season for me. The character interactions, the lead girl, the lead boy, the canonical relationship already going on and it’s silliness, it’s all really cute, sweet, weird, and awkwardly romantic. It’s also surprisingly fast about things because, well, this isn’t so much about a couple becoming a couple, it’s about a really strange couple (well, technically 2 as two of the side characters are also in a strange relationship) and how things go because of their situation which leads to a load of really funny, unique, or those awkwardly romantic unexpected moments. So far the couple has already gone on official dates, held hands, and even had their first real kiss.

Oh, right, the couple is between a high school girl and an elementary school boy, which is hilarious when you consider they’ve already gone further than most couples in serious romance shows. Anyway, that fact leads to a LOT of hilarious situations – not just misunderstandings or the girl oddly enough being the one constantly thinking of lewd situations by mistake, but also just in terms of the writers doing a great job at making this boy SEEM LIKE A LITTLE BOY. He acts just like one and aside the fact him and his two friends are TOTALLY HIGH SCHOOL DUDES in looks, they act more like real children than most children in anime and so it ends up with stuff like them asking her how she can’t want a wiener and doing things like taking her on a date to a sandbox to build a mountain before getting distracted because someone else he knows shows up and he’s a kid so he can’t stay focused. Which also brings those awkward unexpected very unique “romantic” elements too, as there are things that are only possible here because of his age that end up way sweet. It can be REALLY AWKWARD and sometimes even uncomfortable, but aside from some of the girl’s rare fantasies it’s always just misunderstandings or cute jokes waiting to be revealed.

Also the faces from the main girl in this are just too fucking adorable and hilarious and her personality is pretty unique (she’s a self-loathing girl because she grew up super rich and pampered and knows she doesn’t understand the real world because of it). She’s also just super cute, probably the cutest thing of the entire year so far. Oof, longer than I thought.

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Momokuri

This show is also CUTE. Momo and uh…Kuri (I forget her name) are a great couple and just like I said before it’s just so fun watching her be a fucking freak stalker while he misunderstands her stalker attributes as other things and while he tries his best to be a good boyfriend for her. There’s nothing serious here and while a love triangle almost happened which would have really fucking bothered me in a show about an already together couple, it was avoided pretty quickly. Doubly lucky because the other girl? Really cute tomboy. She’s still something I worry about acting up and doing something to make me hate her, but there’s no signs of that happening again and aside that this is just really fun and extremely lighthearted and just a vibrant enjoyable happy show about a quirky couple (seems to be a thing recently, not that I mind). My favorite character so far is EASILY the best friend of the Kuri half of the relationship, she’s just STRANGE even though she’s way more normal in comparison and she has a cute voice and is always very disinterested in absolutely everything.

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New Game!

This turned out exactly how I hoped and then some. A mix of fairly legitimate realism but with a heaping pile of bullshit and absolutely no attempt at saying “this is how working on games really is” whatsoever. That isn’t to say it’s not a show about making a game, it definitely is – the majority of every episode (like 90% of every one so far) is spent at work (the cast is just the character design/modeling/animation group of the studio, by the way, not the programmers or anything like that) but much of that is spent developing the characters and their friendships, joking around, and stuff like that. However, they also do work on the game really often and this is – rather than “hey look this is how games are made” – used as a “hey, look, we thought up a unique way of creating social or developmental situations for our cast”. Instead of passing notes during a high school class we’re PMing over our work computers asking for help on the project and learning personalities of everyone while taking a lunch break or asking about tips to make our NPC model more emotive. It’s really fun and that setting and theme goes a long way to make it interesting and not run-of-the-mill. One recent episode was ENTIRELY dedicated to working on the game – in fact it was our lead character’s first genuine project and she spends a week of in-show time working on it and that’s basically the whole episode and it was a really good one. This isn’t so much a look into game development, rather it’s a work-based slice of life just with a bit more focus on the work than you’d expect from that style of show – and it’s really great so I recommend checking it out.

My biggest disappointment related to this show is that the official real-world game being made seems to be some stupid typical anime tie-in visual novel instead of, you know, THE ACTUAL GAME THEY’RE MAKING IN THE SHOW. It annoys me enough to make sure I brought it up here, I mean what the fuck? At least make it like “the MC fell asleep at work and so she’s dreaming about Fairies Story 3 but with her friends and herself as the party” or something.

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Orange

NOT IF SHE CAN HELP IT.

This is a show I REALLY wanted to love and it started out pretty strong but with a niggling little issue in my head right away once there’s implications she’s got a baby and a husband and this only proved to be worse than I thought at first. Orange is literally a story about a cheating shithead teen who kills himself and a cheating whore who 10 years later regrets not being with him instead of who she is with now SO BADLY that she WRITES A LETTER THAT GOES THROUGH FUCKING TIME to undo her marriage, undo her husband’s happiness, and kill their child out of ever having the chance to exist. That is how much she obsessively wants to fuck this guy and in the past they’re constantly trying to have an affair behind the back of his then girlfriend (who is a way better and more likable human being in every way than Naho, said cheating whore). I just cannot see where the audience is supposed to see positive redeeming factors in any of the cast or feel sympathy or empathy for anybody but that girlfriend and this future husband and baby. Aside those 3 everyone in this is kind of a piece of shit or at the very best just neutral and overall irrelevant.

Why am I still watching it? Because I have to know what happens to those three characters that I mentioned; the baby, the husband, and the girlfriend. I need to know if they at least make it out of this happy and just how far this girl and guy will ruin other people’s lives and how far into degeneracy they’ll go before fucking stopping.

I’m writing a full length post about this on it’s own as well if you’re interested, it should be up soon.

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Scared Rider Xechs

Super sentai mixed with Kamen Rider mixed with Evangelion mixed with RahXephon mixed with Uta no Prince…weird but actually alright. Almost everything in the show is at least lightly music related, and most of the terminology is just outright actual music terms; they use a Vox as their main cruiser, they combine with “Nightfly O’Notes” via shoving an aux cord in their hands, they harmonize to do special attacks, and so on. Hell, the guys even form a band to build up their ability to work as a team. However, there’s definitely more going on than just music especially around the lead character who we don’t even meet until episode 2 (well technically she IS there in 1) who is a cute short haired girl rather than the big tittied slutty American from the first episode (she sticks around too though). There’s a lot of mystery surrounding her and her entire life of memories seems to have been implanted after she came out of some sort of pod she was stored in and even everything since faked, there’s even a sort of sound-stage they found in episode 3 where a picture of her as a child was taken fully with a giant fake forest and sky around her pristinely kept house surrounded by a completely destroyed (real) Yokohama. Then we followed that up by making a health drink commercial with the worst acting and a music video with our band because???? It’s a weird show, but it’s interesting and enjoyable especially for something dealing with so many weird concepts at once and doesn’t take itself seriously.

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Taboo Tattoo

Another one like Mononokean that I came to last and am just tired of writing this post, which sucks because I really like both of these shows but I just can’t think of anything to say about them. The show looks gorgeous, has a really nice style, and I love the character designs (especially the mega boobs on at least two of the cast who also happen to be cute beyond those). The action is exciting and well animated, the humor is really well executed (especially parts where Tomokazu Sugita plays a role because there are some straight up Gintama style moments in this), and both the loads of tasty fanservice and action actually feel like they are more than just there “because”. I also love how much they mix these things up – you’ll be watching a very serious scene and suddenly a joke will pop in out of nowhere and take the heavy atmosphere and turn it into a joke (in a good way). The fight sequences have more going on in them than just “well I guess we have to include fights” and the fanservice feels GOOD and not just downstairs but in a way that makes it add to the show in a weird positive way rather than the usual taking-away-from-it situation or, at the worst, just being totally fine that it’s there and not a bother and it doesn’t make even the SLUTTIEST looking characters feel slutty, it just feels like a character design at the very worst. It also features probably the best character name in fiction – Fluesy Bluesy – which is her actual real canonical name and not some secret alias. There’s an evil loli with a capybara pet too. Don’t get the wrong idea though, this actually has an interesting story going on as well as the fun stuff, the action, with the actual surprising amount of death and carnage that involves the Americans (the good guys for once) in a war against a kingdom that just had a successful very brutal coup by it’s princess.

It’s worth mentioning too that the fights here actually are fights, this show looks overall on par with UFOtable TV series releases but one thing it does differently is that UFOtable tends to make fights kind of not that active or very CG-reliant (for example the cg jets and explosions seen in fate/zero) and while that works well for them it’s kind of cutting corners to hide that they don’t have the budget, time, or maybe the skill needed to animate a lot of movement and such at such a high quality for very long (KnK’s longest actual action sequences are like under a minute or very broken up). Here? The action IS action, a lot of shit is going on and they do some cool stuff with the “camera” by keeping it moving instead of making “cuts” between camera angles or sequences – instead letting it flow and just moving the camera while it’s still continuing to happen nonstop. It makes for a much more exciting and fluid style of action that also just looks gorgeous like the rest of the show.

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Sweetness and Lightning

This has turned out exactly as I was hoping, if not cuter than I imagined. I’ll say again, Hatsukoi Monster is probably the cutest thing this season but this is NOT far behind but that isn’t to say all this has going for it is cuteness. Watching this dad grow as a person and as a father has already been really great and paid off by the end of every episode emotionally for sure. It’s not just fun and cute, it really is sweet and heartwarming seeing this single-dad try so hard to be so much better for his little girl after his wife passed away not that long ago. With that we also get to see her and the high school girl who ends up part of our little family (not in a creepy way) both becoming stronger and happier along the way as well and going through their own troubles (for example, Tsumugi dealing with a bully at her little school which really hurts her feelings and makes her feel like a bad person) and the bonds holding these three together grow stronger every episode through cooking and eating their dinner together. It’s a very simple show but it does a good job of portraying Tsumugi as a girl who is trying her best to be strong while also not being able to fully understand what happened to her mom, Kotori as a teen who is lonely with her (very cute and loving) mom always being away for work and no father, and the dad trying to keep them both happy and while also looking towards Kotori for help as an older-sister type figure for Tsumugi. I’m hoping for Kotori’s mom and Tsumugi’s dad to get together because for one SHE’S A CUTE LADY and would be a great mother for Tsumugi, but also because Kotori and Tsumugi have a really strong sister style relationship already. Though I’d definitely have qualms with him getting with someone else that fast when his wife hasn’t even been dead a year, but whatever.

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Servamp

Don’t know what to say about this one aside that I like it. They’ve done some really fantastic work with a few things I never would have expected that are worth mentioning though: the rich kid we recently befriended and a certain character who does a perfect job at making you unsure of what’s true and not true. It’s rare that a character who is supposed to be ambiguous can come off so genuinely perplexing to the viewer and I really like that they executed this so well. As for the rich kid, his development within the span of like half an episode – and in-universe only about 30 minutes total maybe – was great. He went from a very pushy bossy kid who has never known friendship and so felt he had to force the MC to help him to someone touched by the fact he now has someone who considers him a friend and even risking his life to save him that same night without it feeling unbelievable or forced and with him giving a cool short speech about it. The show itself is a good mix of fun with serious action and drama giving it that good clash of content that actually ends up working well.

There’s also a cute booby girl.

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Bananya

Cute banana-cats.

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Fudanshi

Liking traps isn’t gay but liking BL probably is.

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Time Travel Girl

I really like this – it’s fun, it’s super cute, it’s entertaining, and it’s actually genuinely interesting especially if you don’t really know the details of certain science things. For example the first thing we learn about is compasses and how they work, sure I get how they work, but I can’t say I know on a deep understanding level rather than just a very basic grasp, nor can I claim to know who the fuck figured it out. This presents the stuff in a very lighthearted way and it’s that perfect balance of something trying to be educational while putting enjoyment first and foremost – sort of like the opposite of something like Mario’s Time Machine. Here it’s a cute girl who gets thrown back in time and learns about this stuff in interesting ways by the people who figured (are figuring, at the time) out this stuff. It’s a unique take – albeit one that I’m sure educational stuff on PBS or shown in classrooms has probably tried – on teaching and I think it actually works really well because you watch this as a normal anime, not as something educational, and that just happens to be there too.

Plus, the method it uses to teach beyond “being entertaining and fun and going back in time” is really cool in that it’s not “oh here’s this guy who has the answer who figured it out”. It really is about working alongside these historical figures while they DO figure it out so we learn ALONG WITH THEM and see their thinking process to end up at the result they do, which really makes it feel different in a great way and also is far more engaging. It’s not someone telling you (or the cute girl) how this or that works, it’s them talking through this and trying to figure it out themselves with this girl who doesn’t understand all the concepts or how they’re figuring things out so there’s an excuse for them to explain as they test theories. Plus at the end of each episode you get a little extra science lesson including live action footage of experiments to prove whatever quick theory we’re dealing with for that 30 second or so time slot where the preview usually would be. I absolutely wouldn’t call this edutainment because it achieves what that genre was always supposed to be yet has never accomplished, so it’s unfair to call the show it and give people lowered expectations for it.

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Regalia

This is a show you’d expect me to hate pretty quickly. Lesbian “sisters” including a loli one who happens to be way older than the other, a mostly female cast in all the promo art, and a generic feeling and looking art style all contribute to making this appear to be trash. However it’s actually pretty damn cool when it wants to be, has awesome music, has one of the coolest mech entrances aside Dann of Thursday – the mech in this just appears out of a black hole then fucking rips through a bunch of chains holding it in there before turning the black hole into a cape and throwing it on, and even the lesbian sister thing doesn’t come off bad whatsoever and isn’t treated in a fanservicey way or anything and actually turns out the ‘sister’ isn’t even human but is the core of this mech. Also by “lesbian” I don’t mean they’re going around making out or anything like that, it’s not that sort of situation just one where they clearly have deeper feelings for one another in some form. It’s surprisingly cool, has exciting action, is interesting, and is actually really likable for something that looked like it’d be nothing but a fanservice otaku cash-in.

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Alderamin on the Sky

This was probably the biggest surprise of the season for me in that I expected NOTHING out of this. The absolute only complaint I have about anything we’ve seen so far is that the OP song lets down an otherwise REALLY COOL OP by having a guitar with an effect that sounds like a teacher yelling at Charlie Brown the whole time (especially during the chorus) which makes it just silly sounding. I really do mean it when I say that is the ONLY complaint I have because otherwise this show seems really fucking cool and already is really good right off the bat. I definitely recommend trying this out if you weren’t intending on it already. Fantasy, military, cool ass weapons that are pretty unique (for example a gun that uses a wind spirit in a little chamber to make it shoot and a ga rei zero Michael-13 style sword among other things) a really likable-right-away cast with great chemistry within seconds, a fantastic hook in the first episode, and some really cool shit to come based on the OP. I also have to say I REALLY love the military uniform designs, they just look badass.

This has the perfect mix of fun and silliness yet also the capability to tackle serious scenes and action sequences really well too. Very much recommend checking it out even though it does have some faults like the MC constantly comparing things to blindfolded chess (almost in such excess that it feels like a joke at this point, which mitigates it being annoying a bit) or the fact his “super smart plan” (the only one we’ve seen so far) was incredibly overly contrived and only worked because the show said it should. I will give it some credit for making an unusual MC though who even has a sexual history with married women who have kids his age and that the show ACTUALLY used that as a PLOT AND DEVELOPMENT POINT and not just a joke opportunity and did it well enough that it didn’t bother me even though I’m hypersensitive about shit like that.

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-Dropped-

Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga Aru! / The Art Club Has A Problem!

Well, I said “I can say with about 90% certainty that I’ve never seen an anime focused on an art club that wasn’t really enjoyable.” in my picks post and this has proven me wrong. This show is shit, it’s just a self-insert otaku fantasy about a really cute girl being in love with a 2D obsessed kid who joins the art club to draw his perfect waifu and who, through that and “not being interested in 3D” get’s all sorts of special looks, peeks, certainly eventually touches and feels, from this cute girl because “haha, I’m not interested so it’s okay!”. It’s a pile of shit. Not just because of that theme I just mentioned being the basis of 90% of the dialogue and events, but also just because everything else about it aside the art is pretty shitty. The voice acting sounds outdated, the animation is minimal, the writing is…well the writing is what I just said nonstop – really lame shitty jokes almost entirely based around that one concept over and over again. It’s not good and has absolutely no redeeming qualities aside looking nice at a glance. It’s also, whether due to CR or more likely the actual script, full of obnoxious otaku meme bullshit to remind you that it’s a self insert story for you to imagine yourself with a cute girl wanting your dick and doing anything for you because you totally aren’t into her anyway. Shoulda known it was shit from the long title.

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Haha. Such silly cute faces. Oh, wait, this is how they look nonstop because the mangaka realized that the rare times he’d do this in Aria people liked? BETTER MAKE THE ENTIRE FUCKING SHOW THAT!

Amanchu

As I figured, this is Aria-anime 2.0 with more fanservice (loads of bikinis and big tits, even right in the OP) including all the annoying shit the Aria anime did to make Aria incredibly boring, lifeless, and obnoxious rather than relaxing and nice. It also features possibly the ugliest character designs and “SD art” that I’ve seen in years and it abuses it instead of using it at key moments for comedic impact. Aside that, very unoriginal as well – I don’t mean in an overall sense, that’d be fine, I mean this is literally just Aria again in all the worst most lazy ways. It feels like a clear case of the mangaka (and this staff) buying into the fandom of the original and now abusing the little fun charming things that would appear occasionally and now making them nonstop and just annoying. It’ll no doubt get a lot of attention because of being from that same creator and fanboys will certainly rate it high and praise it to the moon, but it’s not good.

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Mob Psycho 100

While the content itself seemed tolerable, it wasn’t good enough to make up for what is possibly the worst presentation I’ve ever seen aside from Aku no Hana in the medium. It’s ugly, it’s obnoxious, it’s genuinely aggravating to look at in every single way and it ruins everything. I don’t just mean oh it looks like shit, no, it’s actively frustrating and constantly trying to be “art” and stand out as some unique “piece of art”, it’s ugliness is pretentiousness. Couple that with the already mediocre writing and story, the lazy “I’ll just make everyone have Saitama’s face because it’s easy to draw, even women, then also make them horribly annoying looking” character designs, and the up-its-own-ass feeling that it permeates constantly? Not a good look. This is a clear case of the mangaka ending up thinking he gets a free pass now that OPM was successful – this came out 4 years after OPM and he felt too comfortable to bother trying, lazily believing “well my shitty internet comic got picked up and was real popular so I guess I’m a prodigy and can shit out anything and it’ll be golden :^)”. It’s lame, it’s never not irritating to look at, and I definitely recommend avoiding it which shouldn’t be hard given it’s head is so far up it’s own ass that it won’t have any chance at noticing you walking by. It’s not funny, it’s not entertaining, it’s oppressively pretentious and full of itself at every turn and nothing more or less than that.

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As you can see this season ended up being full of shit I’m really enjoying and if you didn’t count (why would you) I’m watching 23 different shows (including continuations, so counting wouldn’t have helped!) this season and loving most of them. There are a few I think are just alright and there are like 3 shorts (including one that definitely is just “alright I guess”) but it’s really unexpected especially after last season was so good that it seemed we were headed into one of mediocrity. Instead almost everything I expected to be just okay or even shit has mostly ended up being great or at least pretty enjoyable. Just another season proving that anime is still on the rise after that ~2 year steep decline not that many years ago – anyone who believes anime is “shit now” clearly doesn’t actually watch anything. Again, I want to repeat that the length of how much I talked doesn’t denote anything so don’t assume based on that.

*If there’s any weird stuff like out of place notes or missing links let me know, I proofread this like 4 times but I’ve also been stressing out so I may have missed obvious stuff.

Oh, I forgot ozmafia, that’s fine too but it’s just whatever.