[Ultimadrago]

Poyopoyo 16

Only bad sisters endorse animal abuse.

[Jexhius]

Film of the year is coming out next season http://www.animekon.com/anime-1536-T...ical-Laws.html

Hype hype!

[hosannainexcelsis]

I'm expecting more of the same, so no one should get their hopes up.

It'll be more of the same, only with a worse OP.

Have your forgotten about Kaoru (Oniisama e) already?

It'd be hard for anyone to ever top my Prince Kaoru, but "type" can encompass multiple people!

[Mad Pierrot]

The worst summer was the one with HSTOD in it.

Amagami SS, Sengoku Basara S2, and Occult Academy held me over that summer, but those were all ultimately junk food and there wasn't a single top-tier show that season. If only I had the free time back then that I do now.

[Jexhius]

I still need to watch the first season of Moyashimon.

I do too. In addition to Dog Days and Lagrange. Or I can toss them into the eternal backlog.

You've still got time. What are you doing here, go watch them!

[Ultimadrago]

It's probably just going to be you and me, but it's going to be a hell of a MARU conversation between us each week.

Don't forget ol' wonzo?

Top 4 reason of why binbou-gami-ga! is a must watch. 1)Animated by Sunrise which animated Gintama. 2)The director is also the director for Gintama. 3)Music is composed by hamauzu. 4)Main Character is voiced by Kana Hnnnnnghzawa.

I am not familiar with these thing, but will be trying it out anyways!

[Jexhius]

Comedy anime are always hit-and-miss so I imagine it's going to be as divisive as every comedy series that's come before and yet to come.

That's true, but is there anyone who didn't like, for instance, Fumoffu? I rarely here that get bad mouthed.

[Dresden]

So anyone want to take a guess at what the worst show of the season will be? I'm guessing Campione or that LN with the dude and the chick adapt.

They look fun from the PVs!

They don't have genderbent warlords though.

Sankarea's ED had the best ED song without question.

I remember when I planned on watching that show. Ah, those idyllic days...

[Unknown Soldier]

Wow, I don't know what I'll try picking up besides Maru Part II. Maybe .hack//Harsh Realm Sword Art Online.

[Jexhius]

Is it just me or are there alot more harems this season?

Harems are the theme of Summer!

Perhaps Studio's are just playing it conservative.

[moonspeak]

I didn't realize how many shows I actually finished from Spring till now.

Dropped:
Fujiko
Medaka Box
Upotte
Nyaruko
Accel World

Still Planning to watch:
Eureka 7 AO (is it still good at this point?)


Rankings -

Fate/Zero S2 > tsuritama > Hyouka > Apollon > MGX > Space Bros > Dusk Maiden > Zombie Deskcar > Sankarea

Dusk Maiden would've been a bit higher if it weren't for that anticlimactic ending. Fate/Zero's conclusion was amazing and tsuritama was as good as I hoped it would be. I loved the laid-back nature of Kore Wa Zombie desu and I'll probably finish up the first season eventually. Pretty good season though all things considered.

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Hey Duckroll! I found a present for you!



How do you like it? Does it remind you of Fujiko, perchance?

[Ultimadrago]

So anyone want to take a guess at what the worst show of the season will be? I'm guessing Campione or that LN with the dude and the chick adapt.

1. Without forced kisses, YuruYuri S2

2. If YuruYuri S2 pulls it off previously mentioned scene, Kingdom

Bonus: Maybe, probably...yeah I'm betting on it being pretty bad: Oda Nobuna no Yabou

[Uchip]

Fate Zero = Korra > Space Bros >Tsuritama > etc

[Jexhius]

So probably 2015 release in North America....

But it's already airing in France across the nation!

[Unknown Soldier]

The worst summer was the one with HSTOD in it.

Speak for yourself. The summer of Highschool of the Dead was hilarious with the GIFs from that show and Zombie Kill of the Week.

[duckroll]

http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/we...m_no=BCXA-0487

The listing for Yamato 2199 Vol3 is up! It'll be out on Nov 22, and episode 10 is almost certainly produced by BONES.

Episode 10 - Cosmic Graveyard

Script: Hiroshi Ohnogi
Episode Director: Shuichi Kaneko
Storyboard: Koichi Chigira
Character & Mecha Animation Director: Toshihiro Kawamoto

[Jexhius]

Too bad Ultimadrago wasn't able to surpass number two.

Oh, I am sure he'll get there one day.

[Mad Pierrot]

So anyone want to take a guess at what the worst show of the season will be? I'm guessing Campione or that LN with the dude and the chick adapt. They don't have genderbent warlords though.

I'm taste-testing a few series to see what's worthy of my Summer suffer-a-thon, so I'll report back with the results in a couple of weeks. I predict Campione, Estelica, or Ebiten.

I remember when I planned on watching that show. Ah, those idyllic days...

Use my patented method for Sankarea enjoyment: pretend that it's a three-episode tragedy about a girl whose terrible home life drives her to suicide after meeting an eccentric young boy whose obsession with zombies causes her to believe that she can be "reborn" if she dies.

[Jexhius]

Only if you are looking for all the yaoi undertones.

Undertones?

[hosannainexcelsis]

I am not familiar with these thing, but will be trying it out anyways!

1. Watch Gintama.

2. Listen to some Masashi Hamauzu soundtracks.

That's true, but is there anyone who didn't like, for instance, Fumoffu? I rarely here that get bad mouthed.

Absolutely. I've seen several people who dislike it, including our very own (albeit rarely seen these days) InfiniteNine.

I remember when I planned on watching that show. Ah, those idyllic days...

You could always just watch the first three episodes. They're pretty good!

[Chet Rippo]

Oh, I am sure he'll get there one day.

How I got to 4th highest, I have no idea.

[Jexhius]

Spring Ratings

Fate/Zero S2
Tsuritama
Kid's On the Slope
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
Space Brothers
MGX

Dropped

Sankarea
Fujiko
Hyouka
Saint Saiya Omega
Upotte
Medeka Box

[Ultimadrago]

1. Watch Gintama. 2. Listen to some Masashi Hamauzu soundtracks.

That's it! I'm tired of putting Gintama on hold. I am starting tomorrow!

Also, I like this music you've shared here. That first song is one of the few things I liked about FFXIII.

How I got to 4th highest, I have no idea.

*squints while camera zooms in*

[Jexhius]

We're already getting into a K-ON slugging match? This thread is worse than this season could ever be.

Nah, that can't happen anymore because K-On has it's own thread. Right? Right?

[Brazil]

How I got to 4th highest, I have no idea.

I was away.

Actually it's your own fault.

[moonspeak]

http://product.bandaivisual.co.jp/we...m_no=BCXA-0487 The listing for Yamato 2199 Vol3 is up! It'll be out on Nov 22, and episode 10 is almost certainly produced by BONES. Episode 10 - Cosmic Graveyard Script: Hiroshi Ohnogi Episode Director: Shuichi Kaneko Storyboard: Koichi Chigira Character & Mecha Animation Director: Toshihiro Kawamoto

I was going to ask in this thread eventually but how is 2199 so far anyways?

[Jexhius]

I was aiming to break into the 400s but the thread died :(

There's no award for trying.

[Articalys]

.

[Chet Rippo]

*squints while camera zooms in*

I guess I can attribute it to the power of Tear.

[Jexhius]

Just to let Anime-GAF know: I'm going to be letting off the anime for a bit. I need to get back to heavy-duty work elsewhere, and I'm watching all of the regular film stuff stuff in my father's collection that I never got to watch when I was younger. Though I might just watch Space Adventure Cobra. That looks good.

Ah, be seeing you then! It was interesting to have a divergent opinion in the thread.

[moonspeak]

I guess I can attribute it to the power of Tear breasts.

ftfy

[Chet Rippo]

ftfy

Well Tear does have tits...

[Typographenia]

IRIA: Zeiram the Animation





I knew this series had a bit of a soft spot in the hearts of a lot of people from some of their earlier exposure to anime. I had only seen the opening sequence, and the setting/technology looked like it would really appeal to my tastes. What I got wasn't really what I was wanting, but I could see where it would have been something unique to someone as an early exposure to anime.





Story

Resident Evil 3. Okay, maybe that's not entirely fair, but it does share some similarities.
Iria is a bounty hunter in training, and she accompanies her brother, Glen, and their boss, Bob (so great hahaha), on a mission to rescue the crew of a cargo ship and its contents. Things aren't as they seem, though, and a terrible creature called Zeiram has gotten loose on the ship. It is apparently indestructible, and, despite Glen's best efforts, flees the vessel in pursuit of Iria after the mission goes awry.

The rest of the episodes are essentially the same formula of "Iria is now at this place, things go bad when Zeiram shows up, but Iria makes Zeiram disappear until the next episode." The show had a lot of filler, and most of it was Iria mugging for the camera. It came across like they had about two or three episodes of substance but the budget for six episodes, and they prolonged things as long as possible. They introduced characters, but the way they wove them into the "plot" never really amounted to anything significant. Everything felt like window dressing, first episode aside. Events developed, things happened, but nothing ever felt like it was building towards anything. When the final episode rolled around, I wasn't really interested in how things would result, and I just watched it play out exactly the way I figured it would. Predictability isn't always a bad thing, but when it has happened five times in a row, it doesn't hurt to do something to break expectations.

None of the characters were executed that well either. I had somewhat high hopes that Iria would be a strong female character, and, when they weren't reminding you that she was a woman, she had a moment or two. But that was it. The little time they spent towards developing her wasn't really anything that made me like or understand her character better, but there wasn't much of a character or personality for me to attach to in the first place. The rest of the characters weren't much different. You had the admirable, but semi-tragic older brother, the obnoxious kids, the grouchy grandpa scientist, and the sneaky corporate man. Not really breaking much ground here. Well, except maybe for the bounty hunter named Bob that died in the first episode from a kiss to the stomach but later showed back up as an AI in some floating prisms because he was "friendly" with the system. What? I mean, he wasn't that interesting of a personality, but that kind of stuff has to count for SOMETHING!

Probably the worst aspect of anything was the Zeiram creature. He was supposed to be this intimidating force that couldn't be stopped. It was essentially the Mr. X of RE3, but the primary face it had was an angry face that screeched all the time. However, the screech sounded like donald duck trying to do his best impression of a cat hissing. It came across as ridiculous, and the movement of the creature often echoed low budget sci-fi films. I would normally have seen it as a positive, but it felt way out of place in the context of the setting. The enemy became more of a joke than anything, and made encounters silly rather than tense.

Not really sure where this fits, but one of the strangest things they did was with one of the children. Can't remember the kid's name, but they had this one child that interacted and began idolizing Iria as the show went on. I thought, "oh, it's going to be one of those big sister things," but they pull a fast one and reveal the kid to be a girl in the later episodes. Was it a big deal? No, but it was so bizarre. It made no real sense to me, and it just felt like the most weightless plot twist ever. I guess they were trying to go for a whole "Iria has grown up, and she's now the Glen to this girl's Iria," but, like the rest of the show, never felt like it went anywhere with it. Just a really strange thing to do, I thought.





Presentation

It looked okay. The animation wasn't spectacular, but the background art seemed to be farily detailed most of the time. It felt like the people really interested in realizing the world were the people in charge of designing objects and locations the characters would be in. They seemed much more unique and inspired than the characters, who often appeared to be just marred with over-decoration. Seriously, Nomura would blush at one or two of the designs in the show. Eck.

Music was forgettable, other than the opening theme music and the ending was okay too. Voice acting was fine?

Everything across the board on the presentation just felt really passable. Not really doing much great, but not doing anything bad enough to warrant pointing out.
The one thing I thought was actually really great in their presentation was the adaptation of things like bamboo and some of Japan's old designs for things like boats into their settings. A lot of technology that appeared futuristic had bamboo shafts on it, the escape crafts of the vessel from the first episode looked like boats straight out of the wood carvings, and other bits and pieces sprinkled throughout the six episodes. I really wish there had been more of it, because it was the single most interesting aspect of the universe, to me.





Final Thoughts

I think the best way I can sum up my time with IRIA is much like my stance of those flavored waters you can buy: the sweet taste is there, but it's not strong enough to make me like what I'm drinking. Does every drink need to be as sweet as a soda? No, but this just fell in an awkward middle ground for me where it didn't go far enough in either direction.

I decided to head to wikipedia to see if I was missing out on anything, and it appears this was laying the grounds for a live-action film. I hope the film was good.

I can easily see where the appeal of this series, both from content and presentation, would be somewhat eye-catching to someone as a first timer of anime, but I don't think it has held up over time. Hard for me to make that kind of judgement call, as this was my first exposure to it, but I've enjoyed other series with similarities in setting, story, and characters that clicked better with me. I don't hate this by any means, but I don't see myself really remembering it in the future. Heck, I watched it just around a week ago, and I can barely recall what all happened other than it was a lot of filler.

If you have a history with this, I think it would be interesting to know your thoughts on it. If you've seen it at all in the recent years, did you still enjoy it? Did it hold up against the rose tinted glasses?

[Jexhius]

Against my better judgment, I'm starting to get hyped for Sword Art: Online. The pic in the OP makes me think of Etrian Odyssey. I went from over 200 to not even making the list. I should probably be happy about this.

You should be. It's not like that's a list of winners.

[hosannainexcelsis]

IRIA: Zeiram the Animation If you have a history with this, I think it would be interesting to know your thoughts on it. If you've seen it at all in the recent years, did you still enjoy it? Did it hold up against the rose tinted glasses?

I watched this for the first time last year, and I liked it quite a bit. The world design was interesting, and I found the characters fun to watch. Not amazing, but a solid watch, better than I expected actually.

You should be. It's not like that's a list of winners.

The self-loathing is strong with this one.

[Jexhius]

Yeah, no season could possibly live up to the one that brought us the return of the Cowboy Bebop guy and a new Lupin featuring that Redline guy... Oh wait.

Wait wait wait, are you saying that Lupin and Kids on the Slope were both failures on the same level?

Regardless, there was hype for more than two shows last season, people were excited about Space Brothers, Saint Saiya and MGX as well.

[Dresden]

I'm taste-testing a few series to see what's worthy of my Summer suffer-a-thon, so I'll report back with the results in a couple of weeks. I predict Campione, Estelica, or Ebiten.

And you'll be watching Sengoku Collection on top of that.

/salute

Use my patented method for Sankarea enjoyment: pretend that it's a three-episode tragedy about a girl whose terrible home life drives her to suicide after meeting an eccentric young boy whose obsession with zombies causes her to believe that she can be "reborn" if she dies.

You could always just watch the first three episodes. They're pretty good!

This is what I'll probably do, once I get around to it.

[dakkumauji]

I'm taste-testing a few series to see what's worthy of my Summer suffer-a-thon, so I'll report back with the results in a couple of weeks. I predict Campione, Estelica, or Ebiten.

I'll probably hate myself for saying this, but none of them look that terrible from short blurb.

If all else fails, we still have Sengoku Collection to keep us suffering?

[Typographenia]

I watched this for the first time last year, and I liked it quite a bit. The world design was interesting, and I found the characters fun to watch. Not amazing, but a solid watch, better than I expected actually.

Aside from the bamboo and older callbacks to Japanese designs, as I mentioned in the post, I felt like the world was just okay. It felt like a very tight look at a much broader world that I never got the full picture of. Almost like keeping the blinders on the whole time. I suppose there's not much sense in blasting the viewer with tons of irrelevant things, but I would have preferred some world building to the dragging pace of the show most of the time.

[Ultimadrago]

Anyways, guess I'll use madpierrot's general template

Shows I finished/will finish soon:

Fate/Zero S2
Kids on the Slope
MGX
Fujiko
Upotte

Shows I will continue watching:

E7AO (eeh)
Sengoku Collection (ugh)
AKB0048
Hyouka (ugh)
Space Brothers

Shows I'm really behind on with watching/dropped status up in the air:

Sankarea

Shows I dropped:

Medaka Box
Nyaruko
Zetman
SSO

Shows I regret not watching:

Tsuritama (I'm watching it now, but should have picked it up in the first place instead of a couple of other shows I ended up finishing. )

And, for good measure:

Best OP:

1. Fate/Zero S2
2. Space Brothers
3. Tsuritama
4. Nyaruko

Worst OP

1. Sengoku Collection
2. Upotte!!

Best ED:

1/0/∞. Shining Hearts (pre-change)

(I don't tend to listen to EDs much)

[Jexhius]

And yet, here you are.

I am mainly here to discuss backlog related shows.

If the shows from this season that are supposed to be good turn out that way, even better!

[Ultimadrago]

If all else fails, we still have Sengoku Collection to keep us suffering?

This makes me wish that it were more "actively" bad and less "lazily" bad...

if that makes sense.

[kayos90]

Tari Tari and SAO are all I care about from that list.... T_T

[Jexhius]

I watched this for the first time last year, and I liked it quite a bit. The world design was interesting, and I found the characters fun to watch. Not amazing, but a solid watch, better than I expected actually.

Agreed. I think the design-level work on Iria is generally excellent. All the objects, items, weapons, devices, vehicles and buildings are extremely cool and someone clearly spent a lot of time and had a lot of fun coming up with all of them.

[hosannainexcelsis]

Preliminary 2012 Anime Rankings:

1. Fate/Zero
2. Tsuritama
3. Shiranpuri
4. Hotarubi no Mori e
5. Minori Scramble
6. Mysterious Girlfriend X
7. Wasurenagumo
8. Fullmetal Alchemist: Sacred Star of Milos
9. Kids on the Slope
10. Space Brothers
11. Ano Natsu de Matteru
12. Natsume's Book of Friends S4
13. Chihayafuru
14. Hyouka
15. Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki
16. Buta
17. Daily Lives of High School Boys
18. Yurumates 3D
19. Thermae Romae
20. Yuri Seijin Naoko-san

Wait wait wait, are you saying that Lupin and Kids on the Slope were both failures on the same level?

I'm just saying expectations can be a bitch.

[Mad Pierrot]

This is kinda neat:

Now is the perfect time for an announcement of Sailor Moon SuperSuperS.

I'll probably hate myself for saying this, but none of them look that terrible from short blurb. If all else fails, we still have Sengoku Collection to keep us suffering?

I kind of get that horrible generic otakushit light novel vibe from all of them, so I'm sure at least one will pan out.

Sengoku Collection has disappointed me greatly in terms of badness, so personally I'm bumping it up to a legit watch from a suffering show.

[hosannainexcelsis]

Aside from the bamboo and older callbacks to Japanese designs, as I mentioned in the post, I felt like the world was just okay. It felt like a very tight look at a much broader world that I never got the full picture of. Almost like keeping the blinders on the whole time. I suppose there's not much sense in blasting the viewer with tons of irrelevant things, but I would have preferred some world building to the dragging pace of the show most of the time.

I wouldn't have minded more world building, but at the same time I like the feeling that the world exists beyond the confines of the narrative shown. I'd much rather background glimpses of culture and setting than historical exposition dumps.

[Jexhius]

Because he isn't a good director.

That's an interesting opinion. As it's generally said that Hosoda is an extremely talented up and coming director perhaps you could explain what you don't like about his direction? Is it to do with the stories he adapts? The way he shoots them? Some aspect of his film style?

[jman2050]

Yuru Yuri 1-2

It's alright, I guess. A few hilarious moments but also running into the age-old problem of taking a gag and sprinting it into the ground mercilessly. Which isn't always a bad thing, mind you, but for something this laid back you need to aim for variety.

Also I know the show is called what it is but man they are laying it on thick. Tsundere yuri, tsundere yuri everywhere!

I may or may not watch more. Ayano > other tsundere chicks > three main characters > that white-haired smut lover.