I didn’t get back into reviewing anime until October of
2013, so I wasn’t able to watch too much that was new. Part of it was due to watching series’ I had
missed in the intervening 4 years since I stopped reviewing, part of it was due
to despair in what was available…here’s a look at what I touched and my
thoughts on them.
Attack on Titan. This story deals with an alternate Earth
were the inhabitants live within a massive walled city. For a hundred years they have lived that way,
in order to keep a race of cannibal giants from destroying them. When a previously unseen giant, taller and
stronger than the outer wall, breaks through and allows the hordes to flood
into the city, humanities fate is in question.
After the death of his mother and the destruction of the section he
lived in, Eren Jaeger has decided once and for all to fight to eradicate the
giants.
I have only made
it through the first few episodes of this anime and really don’t find much
interest in it. It is the HOT anime of
the year, both in Japan and elsewhere, but I find the story boring and
uneventful. The basics of the series
have been done and done to death in the shonen action genre. While it’s not like some epic shonen series
as Naruto or DBZ, it does remind me quite a bit of Full Metal Alchemist, but as
a pale attempt at being as creative. A really
interesting thing with this series is the original creator of Gundam calling it
out as a pile of poorly planned rubbish.
I’m sure I’ll watch a few more episodes but I don’t foresee myself
falling in love with it for any reason.
Beyond the Boundary.
This shonen super natural action series that
deals with select humans who have the ability to see and interact with spiritual
beings. They take it upon themselves to
dispatch these beings in order to protect humanity and the balance of
nature. Akihito Kanbara is half human
and half spirit, giving him near immortality.
Classmate Mirai Kuriyama is the lone member of a cursed family of spirit
warriors and at first uses Akihito as target practice but he soon convinces her
to become involved in the spirit warrior community in their town. Mirai’s troubled past soon starts to catch up
with her though.
Shonen spiritual
fighting show, I have never really been interested in these over the
years. I gave this one about 6 episodes
before I decided it reminded me too much of Bleach. Honestly though, the series is only 12
episodes so maybe I should just finish it.
But I still don’t think I will enjoy it very much.
I Couldn’t Become a Hero,
so I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job. Fanservice
for fanservice sake disguised as a slice of life fantasy comedy. Raul Chaser is a sword for hire, but when the
demon lord is killed, work dries up. So
he gets a job selling appliances at a store. Things go normally for him until the daughter
of the slain demon king starts working there too.
Honestly, I shut
it off after 5 minutes. Fuck this show,
fuck everything is represents with the way anime has been for a decade
now. Fuck the akitaku. I’m done!!!
Kill la Kill. Stylized fantasy action series from the minds
behind Gurren Lagann. Ryuko Matoi is
searching for the person responsible for killing her father, to do so she will
challenge anyone involved in the power base of the world’s school systems.
I only watched the
first episode and realized that I have no interest in this series and this may
be also why I have never watched beyond episode two of Gurren Lagann. I’m just not interested in its style. But I recognize the uniqueness and quality
in this series and don’t fault anyone for enjoying it. It’s just not my cup of tea. So, if you loved Gurren Lagann or Panty &
Stockings with Garterbelt you will probably enjoy this one as well.
Kimi no Iru Machi. Typical romantic high school drama. Haruto Kirishima moves to Tokyo to reconnect
with his long distance girlfriend, only to find one of his new friends is her
current boyfriend and his love for her may only be one sided.
The anime for this
long spanning manga is a story arc that takes place about half way through the
series. Honestly though, they do a half
decent job of filling in the back story of the previous 90 issues before the
arc takes place, which begs one to wonder if the manga had really been too long
to begin with. It’s a basic and
a-typical high school male geared romance.
Idiotic personal problems between kids who can’t express their true
feeling/intentions and ridiculous circumstances to make things even stickier. The best part of this 13 episode series was
the last 3 minutes of the 12th episode, and then it went really downhill with
the final episode. Really not worth that much of
your time, as it spans about 40 issues of the manga which is almost 260 issues
deep by the end of 2013. Watching it
also made me get back into the manga to refresh my memory of the previous story
and find out what takes place afterwards…unfortunately the rest of the story is
just as boring and pointless and with all the time I have invested with it I
have to see it to its boring end.
Honestly, steer clear…re-watch Love Hina or Fruits Basket.
Mangirl! Comedic slice of
life look at the lives of editors of a manga magazine. This an anime adaption of a 4 panel comic
about 4 women who start up the real manga magazine the comic appears in, in
attempts to make it big in the manga world.
Coming in at about
an hour run time this quirky and quick paced comedy is fun and gives you a peek
into the world of running a manga magazine.
Definitely worth the time. It
would be fun to read the manga.
My Mental Choices are
Completely Interfering with my High School Romance. Slice of life, fanservice absurdist comedy
about a guy cursed to live his life like a dating sim. Kanada Amakusa tries to be a normal high
school student but he is cursed with having to select things from random
multiple choice questions, most of which make him out to be one of the schools
top weirdo’s. When a cute and clueless
girl falls from the sky she brings with her a chance from Kanada to rid himself
of the curse.
This series was ok…as
long as I kept telling myself it was a jab at fanservice harem video
games. Sometimes it was hard to keep
telling myself that and other times it was quite enjoyable. The series’ weakest point is that fact it
really doesn’t end…it just stops after 10 episodes. It’s based on a series of semi popular light
novels, so who knows if there will be more, or whether I actually care if there
is more. Fans of typical
dating sim based eroge will like it, especially for the gratuitous
fanservice. The comedy isn’t bad; it’s a
bit absurdist and reminded me of a toned down Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan.
Samurai Flamenco. A realistic slice of life comedy/drama about
an idealistic young man who tries to be something he can’t be. Masayoshi Hazama accidentally became a male
model even though his life’s ambition is to be a super hero, like the characters in the action
shows he grew up on. With the earning he
gets from being in magazines and the loose work schedule, he decides to
start fighting crime in his city as the super hero, Samurai Flamenco, even if
there aren't any super villains to stand up against.
I initially really
enjoyed this show, it was steeped in reality and didn’t shy away from the dangers
one faces when attempting to be a vigilante.
Then seven episodes into the series it completely flips and enters into
the world of fantasy and fiction when all sorts of mutants show up to challenge
him…it was incredibly disappointing, especially since the 6th
episode was the best to that point. I
really regretted the course this show took, watched 2 more episodes just to
make sure it wasn’t some sort of delusion and then gave up on it. Bad move…bad move.
Servant x Service. A slice of life comedy that deals with the
daily oddball lives of workers in a local Ward office. Lucy (shortened) Yamagami has entered the
world of public service in order to find out who allowed her parents to give
her a ridiculously long and foolish first name.
Who thought the
day to day routine of public service employees could be so fun? Well, it does help that you toss in some
unique and quirky personalities, semi unrealistic circumstances and typical
light comedy standards. The series
started off slow and was annoying with too much attention paid to the main
characters large bust. Though half way through it turns into a light hearted
romantic comedy and puts the boobs on the side lines. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t anything to write
home about. The most memorable thing is
the opening song, which is actually really fun.
Watamote. Slice of life, off beat, comedy about being a
social outcast. Tomoko Kuroki is a
social recluse, more interested in games and manga, along with a dark/gothic
personality and disposition. However as
she begins her high school life she wants to be able to open up to people and
live like a normal high school girl.
In a few ways this
reminded me of Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (The Wallflower). In other ways it didn’t. The series didn’t seem entirely focused though and
drifted from episode to episode without any clear goal or progression. The series isn’t bad; it just didn’t seem
very together is all. Perhaps if I watch
all of it that may clear up, but honestly, the determined ending of Tomoko
being able to come out of her shell and be a socialite seems a bit
disappointing. The series is meh at
best, but better than most of what’s current…take it for what it is, a
distraction.
Yuyushiki. Slice of life comedy about 3 absurd high
school girls. Yukari, Yui and Yuzuko are
odd ball and carefree students at an all girls' high school, coasting through
life enjoying their youth with no cares beyond the size of their busts.
Following in the
well trodden pathway of Azumanga Daioh, Minami-ke, Ichigo Mashimaro, Hidamari
Sketch, Lucky Star, etc, etc, this series is only meh in the quality
scale. Nothing to write home about or
get into too much, but it fills in the void left by the lack of truly quality
titles these days. With only 13 episodes
it doesn’t take too much time to get through and the subject matter and joke
material don’t require much in the way of concentration. You can just kind of float through this
series while doing other stuff at the same time.
Worth the watch if you don’t have much else to do and want to laugh a
bit. There were large portions of some
episodes were I didn’t really do more than smirk though…I’ve seen pretty much
all the gags before so it didn’t move me much.
Conclusion. The anime landscape really still kind of
sucks. I did gravitate pretty heavily
towards the slice of life comedies but my tastes have been slowly moving in
that direction. I keep my hopes out for
a really engaging and inventive series to come out…there are a few that
fall into horror/dark drama that are slated for the beginning of 2014…but
honestly, there isn’t much that I have seen that gets me excited beyond the
reboot of Keroro Gunsou. So, honestly
the best thing to come out of the year that I have watched was the hour-ish
long Mangirl! That’s kind of sad…
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