Handa-kun 1
This surpassed my admittedly low expectations and actually got a few laughs out of me. Hey, maybe there will be a decent comedy this season.
It's also nothing like Barakamon, so don't watch this because you liked that. Even Handa-kun acts nothing like his older counterpart.
Ehh, it's alright. Not as good as Barakamon, and I do think the setting has a lot to do with that. That said, there were a few moments that made me chuckle.
The lack of eyes on background characters creeps me out. The way they look and respond to each other is freaky. I don't know if it looks like that in the manga, but fuck, they should have changed that for the anime.
Ehh, it's alright. Not as good as Barakamon, and I do think the setting has a lot to do with that. That said, there were a few moments that made me chuckle.
Well it's got pretty much nothing in common with Barakamon other than it having a protagonist that does calligraphy. Even Handa is essentially a completely new character that shares little more than a name with the guy from Barakamon.
The montages of Miyamori frantically trying to scrounge up animators for the last episode and the interviews for a new production assistant were strong. If anything, it feels like the direction of this show is only getting more creative.
It was also neat to see Baseball Bones President show up.
Imo Handa-kun and Barakamon shouldn't be compared as they focus on completely different things. The former focuses on comedy while the latter focuses on comfy heartfelt moments.
You'll be disappointed if you expect a Barakamon out of this series. Anyway the comedy is much better in Handa-kun while Barakamon has a better laid back atmosphere and heartwarming tone.
Yeah, I know people shouldn't be comparing this to Barakamon, and I won't, but I think its safe to say from this episode that we won't be getting either the same production values or likability from the characters that we did from Barakamon. (That's not to say this is cheaply made, just.. you know, don't expect Barakamon-the prequel- from this).
For what it was, it was pretty good... you know, when they stopped dicking around with the 4th wall for the first 9 minutes and actually got to the actual episode. Overall, not bad. Hopefully next episode won't dick around as much.
The first 9mins were all 4th wall breaking/meta humour. I was worried the whole episode would be that since I was getting really bored.
The episode itself (which is to say what came after that intro) was goddamn hilarious. I found myself laughing at every joke the show threw at me. Handa is truly clueless and the way is misinterprets his surroundings is just too funny. This will be this season's comedy show for me.
But yeah this is no Barakamon at all. This could be called something else and I wouldn't even have any complaints at all. All we have here is Handa's calligraphy and family background, everything else is totally different in terms of tone and execution. Which isn't a bad thing, since the show is truly funny but yeah.
Why I'm doing this? Here, have a Thunderbolt Glossary.
I don't speak Chinese natively and I felt the harsh, withering gaze of my ancestors as I looked up the hanzi and tried to put together my own interpretations of the vocabulary. One thing you should know about wuxia, and medieval China in general, is the variety of names every person has. You have the given name, which everyone is familiar with, but also a style name, which is a mark of adulthood. Sometimes it's given by the parents, or the teacher/sifu/sensei, sometimes it's self chosen. Liu Bei's style name was Xuangde. The official page calls it "street name" in Japanese but I don't think that's very epic. I've included a literal translation and a poetic one, using all my knowledge of mono no aware. I err on the side of hanzi but I looked up the definitions in kanji as well to get a sense of what Butch and gang were going for when the Chinese didn't make sense. I don't know of any idioms that I might've passed over by doing it like this, although I caught one in Mie Tian Hai's name.
Given Name: 凜雪鴉 (Lǐn Xuě Yā -
Cinnabar Radiance Sword Secret・Fly Red Clouds Journey Moon OR Secret of the Rust-colored Radiant Sword・Fly through Haze to Journey to the Moon
I really hope Cornbread makes the next Let's Watch Shin Mazinger Z so I can watch a bunch of people witness Imagawa's genius at writing giant super robot anime for the first time all at once.
Watching a bunch of people watch and love a good mecha anime is always a pleasant experience. That time when ToonamiGAF watched TTGL last year made me so freaking happy.
By the way the English name "Thunderbolt Fantasy" is despairingly mundane.
東離劍遊紀 (dōng lí jiàn yóu jì) - East From Sword Journey Chronicles OR Chronicles of the Journey of the Sword from the East
By the way the English name "Thunderbolt Fantasy" is despairingly mundane.
東離劍遊紀 (dōng lí jiàn yóu jì) - East From Sword Journey Chronicles OR Chronicles of the Journey of the Sword from the East
Yeah, it's wuxia alright. I remember watching a wuxia show and they translate the name of every characters, hence i got name like sweeping crane, the iron fist, red dragon etc and all i could think was, man, that is one badass name
Speaking of 劍, this might not come up in the anime because of cultural differences but 剑 (jiàn) which is used all over episode 1 is a double bladed sword, like the European shortsword:
It's just a small detail, but it looks like Shang Bu Huan uses a
katana (since it's implied he's visiting Taiwan from Japan) which would be more accurately described as a dao instead of a jian. They even use the same character, 刀!
Anyone know if there's any future plans for The Sky Crawlers or The Pilot's Love Song/The Princess and the Pilot? Just saw a new series called Alderamin on the Sky is on Crunchyroll, I was really hoping it was related to one of those series. I think they're both LN's, so I'm hoping with the current wave of LN->Anime adaptations that one of those franchises might continue.
Anyone know if there's any future plans for The Sky Crawlers or The Pilot's Love Song/The Princess and the Pilot? Just saw a new series called Alderamin on the Sky is on Crunchyroll, I was really hoping it was related to one of those series. I think they're both LN's, so I'm hoping with the current wave of LN->Anime adaptations that one of those franchises might continue.
Not that I'm aware of. But yeah The Pilot's Love Song/The Princess and the Pilot are part of a giant LN series. Pretty bummed really given Pilots Love Song clear told the first part of a story arc.
I remember being worried they wouldn't deliver when Part 2 was airing with its stills and cgi horses. Now it might actually get the adaptation it deserves.
"Man, my life sucks. Sure wish I could go back to high school and do it all over again."
*The Next Day*
"Oh yeah, I forgot there's this thing called math..."
Of the 46 winning stories listed on the "Net Novel Prize" contest's website, 14 have "alternate world" directly in the title. Some examples are, "The Unparalleled Saint Salaryman and the Road to Surviving in an Alternate World," "Alternate World Station Café," "Alternate World Brothel Manager," "Item Collector in an Alternate World," "This Alternate World's Magical Language Looks Just Like Japanese," and "Doing My Best to Pet Fluffy Things in an Alternate World."
This, though, sounds more interesting than it probably is. I mean, if there was an anime of the girl from Sweetness and Lightning going around and petting fluffy things in a fantasy world, I'd watch that.
Alderamin 1
After watching the episode I got extremely intrigued. Ended up reading what was available of the manga then the LN and read future summaries...
This show has potential goddamn. Very different than the usual LN trash. I'd compare it to Overlord but without all the perverted stuff. War, strategy, politics, super intelligent MC. Hope it will be popular.
I've never really identified with a LN self-insert protagonist until now, but I can absolutely understand the desire to pet fluffy things; it is a savage lust I know all too well.
I've never really identified with a LN self-insert protagonist until now, but I can absolutely understand the desire to pet fluffy things; it is a savage lust I know all too well.
I've never really identified with a LN self-insert protagonist until now, but I can absolutely understand the desire to pet fluffy things; it is a savage lust I know all too well.
Thunderbolt 1
I had no idea what to expect, but damm that was good. The sword play was some dope shit. If like all of the fights are going to be like that I'm going to be so happy.
Noragami Aragato Episodes 1-2
First of all, holy fuck this OP song is hype as hell wtf. I thought the first season OP song was rad, but damnnnn. It was actually the main reason why I wanted to check out Noragami in the first place and it's kind of stuck in my head now. JUST WANNA HOLD YOUR HANNNNNNNNDS~
As for the actual episodes, decent start so far and seems more interesting than the first season so far even if so far it just seems to be set up. Charming/humorous characters are still there (love Yato and his antics so much lol) though I do like that it's more serious this time around (like that the season seems more focused on Bishamon this time around).
Wasn't expecting Suzuha to bite it like that though.
This, though, sounds more interesting than it probably is. I mean, if there was an anime of the girl from Sweetness and Lightning going around and petting fluffy things in a fantasy world, I'd watch that.
I wonder if thunderbolt will lose the equivalent of keeping the animation quality throughout. Like they brought their best puppet masters for this first episode. Next episode it'll be like the staffs kids mashing the toys together making sword noises.
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