As its 5 weeks into the 2016 Winter season its time to go over which shows are sticking around and which have gotten dropped.
Keep List:
Erased: This one goes with out saying. It is the best anime of the season, excellent artwork, excellent direction with engaging story and character development. This is one of those rare gems that keeps me searching for more anime of this caliber.
Ajin: I'm up to date with the manga and I want to see how Polygon Studio unfolds this short run series. It's only supposed to be 13 episodes long so I am very interested in how they end it. It's an interesting mature story that swims deeply in the tried and true stories of super beings and ultra violence. There isn't much substance but its visually excellent and Sato is one of the best villains in the world of manga.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: this one was a surprise for me, as I generally dislike fantasy and really despise the current trend of dropping people suddenly into MMORPG's. But this one has a more natural and humanistic approach to it that is well done and enjoyable. The characters are being developed slowly through time and the mild amount of fan service can be over looked for the realistic approach of learning how to survive in a new reality.
Please Tell Me Galko-chan: Its crass, over the top and something about the perverted and immature topics are actually entertaining. I like to think of this one as the female counter to Colorful. Its entertaining and silly while being dirty and perverted. Aside from Galko looking like an ecchi doujin rendition of Tsukino Usagi the fan-service is actually non existent. It's just a series of conversations typical of teenagers.
Durarara x2 part 3: With out a doubt, what appears to be the final arc for this excellent example of how to tell an entertaining tale that's driven by an immense ensemble cast.
Dimension W: This one is still on the fence. It has moments of quality that remind me of both Cowboy Bebop and Riding Bean, but other moments of annoyance that remind me of countless other shows I skip. The 4th episode was the weakest so far given that I dislike when shows emulate the Hounds of Baskerville in any fashion.
Drop List:
Active Raid: Episode 5 confirmed that this show was pointless. The type cast characters did nothing for me, the serial story telling served little purpose and the background over all plot seemed too generic to interest me. The 5th episode with the poker card face of battle...put all the nails in the coffin for this one. I should just re-watch Patlabor and be done with it.
Ooya-san wa Shishuki: This series offers nothing beyond a repetitive joke about misunderstanding a single mans reactions to his underage landlord.
Oji-san and Marshmellow: Its hard to tell what the point of this short series is. Is it an expose of a young women with a middle aged man feeder fetish? Or is a story of a pathetic and semi-coherent man that we are supposed to pity?
Dagashi Kashi: This is one of the highly applauded series' for the season. It did absolute nothing for me. I don't think it has anything to do with my lacking nostalgia for dagashi. It has to do with rote and uninteresting characters and a plot device that doesn't entertain me. The main protagonist resembles too closely the character Anna from Shimoneta to cause revulsion for the pointless fan service lurking at the edges.
Bubuki Buranki: This was the biggest disappointment. The first half of the first episode was really good, interesting Ghibli like post apocalypse world in which a small family works to contain weapons of a long lost war. Then it turns into a pop cyber punk magical kids vs. enemies who only exist for cosplayers to emulate and a story that could have come from some fan made authoritarian volcaloid series they wiped up. It had some real potential to be an interesting futuristic fantasy story but devolved into a bad mash up of Hamatora and Mekaku City Actors with some other shows of lower quality thrown in.
Carryover titles from the Fall/Beyond:
Osomatsu-san: This revisit of a classic anime/manga continues to be hilarious mixed with episodes of boredom and some retrospection. Its become insanely popular in Japan and hopefully it continues to renew for a few more seasons.
MS Gundam Iron Blood Orphans: The most interesting and least annoying Gundam titles in a long time. The character designs still annoy me, but the characters and the plot are well done and worthy of the title of Gundam. An excellent apology for the mess of G Reco and the whiny garbage that was 00.
Gintama: Can we please return to the comedy that this series does so well?
Everyone keeps talking about how amazing Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju is so I added it to the cue but have yet to watch it. Period historical drama's tend to be hit or miss with me, but the writing for this one is supposed to be top notch.
Keep List:
Erased: This one goes with out saying. It is the best anime of the season, excellent artwork, excellent direction with engaging story and character development. This is one of those rare gems that keeps me searching for more anime of this caliber.
Ajin: I'm up to date with the manga and I want to see how Polygon Studio unfolds this short run series. It's only supposed to be 13 episodes long so I am very interested in how they end it. It's an interesting mature story that swims deeply in the tried and true stories of super beings and ultra violence. There isn't much substance but its visually excellent and Sato is one of the best villains in the world of manga.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash: this one was a surprise for me, as I generally dislike fantasy and really despise the current trend of dropping people suddenly into MMORPG's. But this one has a more natural and humanistic approach to it that is well done and enjoyable. The characters are being developed slowly through time and the mild amount of fan service can be over looked for the realistic approach of learning how to survive in a new reality.
Please Tell Me Galko-chan: Its crass, over the top and something about the perverted and immature topics are actually entertaining. I like to think of this one as the female counter to Colorful. Its entertaining and silly while being dirty and perverted. Aside from Galko looking like an ecchi doujin rendition of Tsukino Usagi the fan-service is actually non existent. It's just a series of conversations typical of teenagers.
Durarara x2 part 3: With out a doubt, what appears to be the final arc for this excellent example of how to tell an entertaining tale that's driven by an immense ensemble cast.
Dimension W: This one is still on the fence. It has moments of quality that remind me of both Cowboy Bebop and Riding Bean, but other moments of annoyance that remind me of countless other shows I skip. The 4th episode was the weakest so far given that I dislike when shows emulate the Hounds of Baskerville in any fashion.
Drop List:
Active Raid: Episode 5 confirmed that this show was pointless. The type cast characters did nothing for me, the serial story telling served little purpose and the background over all plot seemed too generic to interest me. The 5th episode with the poker card face of battle...put all the nails in the coffin for this one. I should just re-watch Patlabor and be done with it.
Ooya-san wa Shishuki: This series offers nothing beyond a repetitive joke about misunderstanding a single mans reactions to his underage landlord.
Oji-san and Marshmellow: Its hard to tell what the point of this short series is. Is it an expose of a young women with a middle aged man feeder fetish? Or is a story of a pathetic and semi-coherent man that we are supposed to pity?
Dagashi Kashi: This is one of the highly applauded series' for the season. It did absolute nothing for me. I don't think it has anything to do with my lacking nostalgia for dagashi. It has to do with rote and uninteresting characters and a plot device that doesn't entertain me. The main protagonist resembles too closely the character Anna from Shimoneta to cause revulsion for the pointless fan service lurking at the edges.
Bubuki Buranki: This was the biggest disappointment. The first half of the first episode was really good, interesting Ghibli like post apocalypse world in which a small family works to contain weapons of a long lost war. Then it turns into a pop cyber punk magical kids vs. enemies who only exist for cosplayers to emulate and a story that could have come from some fan made authoritarian volcaloid series they wiped up. It had some real potential to be an interesting futuristic fantasy story but devolved into a bad mash up of Hamatora and Mekaku City Actors with some other shows of lower quality thrown in.
Carryover titles from the Fall/Beyond:
Osomatsu-san: This revisit of a classic anime/manga continues to be hilarious mixed with episodes of boredom and some retrospection. Its become insanely popular in Japan and hopefully it continues to renew for a few more seasons.
MS Gundam Iron Blood Orphans: The most interesting and least annoying Gundam titles in a long time. The character designs still annoy me, but the characters and the plot are well done and worthy of the title of Gundam. An excellent apology for the mess of G Reco and the whiny garbage that was 00.
Gintama: Can we please return to the comedy that this series does so well?
Everyone keeps talking about how amazing Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju is so I added it to the cue but have yet to watch it. Period historical drama's tend to be hit or miss with me, but the writing for this one is supposed to be top notch.
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