Fall 2014 Anime Season Preview and Expectations

Fall 2014 is nearly here, and the season actually begins on Thursday, October 2nd (Terraformars aside). So time to see what I’m more interested in. this post doesn’t really focus on my “predictions” for how good something will be,  but is about my interest levels, on what I think will be interesting, and why. Shows that “didn’t make it” are usually shows I’m slightly less interested in, or find it interesting to remark on.

What do I think of the season? It’s the season of sequels or returning shows! Almost everything I’m actually excited for falls under that purview, from Psycho-Pass 2, to Log Horizon 2, and of course, Legend of Korra Season 4 (not anime, I know). Aside from that? Some seasons have no comedies, others have no action. This season has it all, the only thing I see lacking is romantic comedies, but between straight comedies and straight romances, I think most people will be satisfied.

As always, organized by days of the week, because I might pick a show on an empty day or cut shows I enjoy on days already overfilled with other shows. Order is by expectation within that day. Continuing from Summer, I’m cutting down on my coverage of posts with episodic write-ups, so only up to a couple of shows will get that.

Most of the information about the shows can be had from RandomCuriosity’s page, the helpful Neregate Chart, and what I’ve happened to see on various sites, such as The Cart Driver. Check them out if you want more information.

Sunday:

The Seven Deadly Sins / Nanatsu no Taizai – This looks to be a pretty standard shounen fantasy adventure – a group of super-powered klutzes who must be convinced to save the kingdom from tyrannical Holy Knights, with the usual shounen manga gag humor. It’s going to be a long-running shounen, so don’t expect any real form of closure. Directed by Okamura Tensai and series composition done by Suga Shoutarou, who between them worked on Cowboy Bebop, Darker than Black, Kannagi, Sekai Seifuku, Wolf’s Rain, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and OreGairu. That’s impressive.
Interest Rating: 1.5/3.  I like shounen action, and the people behind it make it likely for this to be on the more enjoyable end of the spectrum for a sort of show I already enjoy, even if it’s likely to be “nothing special”.
Airing Date: October 5th. Preview.

Aldnoah.Zero episode 12 (Finale) – “Everybody, Do the Combination!” / Reaching, and Failing

So, the finale of the first-cour is upon us, and the second-cour was double-confirmed to begin airing in January 2015. The director or author of this show promised us this episode will end in a massive cliffhanger, but really, was such a promise necessary? Considering about 70% of the episodes ended in a cliffhanger or a twist (episodes 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and the rest ended on “Cool!” moments), it was sort of given that the finale of the first half would end on one as well.

So, we’re having a face-off, between humanity’s greatest hope (Inaho in the orange corner!) against the tragic and ironic Martian Rebel Leader (Count Saazbaum in the red corner!), and everyone else is just trying to survive. This is a fight for humanity, and for the survival of mankind, and justice.

Slaine keeps running around, always late to help people. So, if we want the episode to end on a suitably ironic and “ZOMG!” moment, we probably need something like Asseylum shooting Slaine, or better yet, Slaine shooting Asseylum, while he tries to shoot Inaho, or just join Saazbaum in order to backstab him in the second half. Let’s see how it goes. Write-up incoming.

Thoughts and Notes:

Screenshot album.

Edit: Here’s a webm of the combination. It’s friggin’ 62 seconds long. Pomf.se is down, will reupload there later.

1) Foolish Earthlings:

1) “The Deucalion? Why is it here?!” – The nightmare of those on the advance forces, who risk their lives in order to keep everyone back safe – to find out the rear had been made a front of its own. But if you think about it, that’s sort of a recurring theme in this show thus far, about how they’ve had to keep fighting on board the refugee-filled ship, about how their civilian homes had been destroyed immediately after they managed to escape. All of Earth is a front.

Zankyou no Terror Episode 10 – The Tension Between Nationalistic Pride and Individualism

Last episode was definitely interesting. We’ve been told flat-out that the kids are going to die, win or lose. That means that here we see what they care for. Nine cares for the truth behind their situation to come out, and for justice to be done. Twelve repeats what he said in the first episode when they first saw Lisa, how they used to be too weak to save their friends, but this time they’ll do it, this time they’ll save someone else. But what about Five? Does she wish to destroy her former friends’ dreams, does she wish to win, or is she just trying to have fun and not be lonely before she dies?

Shibazaki and his allies are circling around the truth, and the nuclear bomb wielded by terrorists who do not wish to kill anyone is still looming as a specter over everything else. Two episodes to go, and it’s time to start tying up the various threads, and have confrontations, to continue the one we’ve had last episode – where we’ve had Twelve choose Lisa over Nine, or rather, Twelve choosing the future over the past, twice.

Thoughts and Notes:

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1) Turning Yourself In Makes it Easier to Talk to Cops:

1) Nine turns himself in, meaning he thinks it’s his best option at this point. He also trusts Shibazaki, so there’s that, and this might force Five to stop doing shit all over the place, and she couldn’t pull stuff and blame it on him. Well, there’s still the nuke, which he can use, and it’d be so much easier to discuss things with the police directly, rather than over videos, eh?

Summer 2014 Anime Season Week 11 (Anime Power Ranking)

Hunter x Hunter, I’m caught up! Two series reach their conclusions (finally), and other shows amble about.

Weekly impressions for Akame ga Kill!, Aldnoah.Zero, Barakamon, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 2wei!, Hunter x Hunter(2011),  JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Sword Art Online II, Tokyo Ghoul, and Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance).

Link in titles leads to full-episode write-ups. Write-ups ordered by how much I enjoyed or thought the episodes were good.

Barakamon episode 10:

This episode continues the ideas expressed in most of the series, but especially in the 8th episode, where Sensei watched over the grave of Naru’s grandmothe. Handa is part of the crowd, happy to help with building an anti-typhoon wall at the behest of Naru’s grandfather, how he has a phone-call while taking care of the girls as if they were kittens, how he goes with them to their spot to watch the fireworks…

Aldnoah.Zero episode 11 notes – “We’re in Hollywood Now!”

Write-up this time is a lot more “observations and chuckling” than deeper content. Well, that’s what I was in the mood for.

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So, Rayet’s choice was made for her by Inaho, who continues to be the one who gets to make all the decisions, including for other characters, and also makes the adults entirely redundant. But Slaine! Slaine finally got a break and got to make a decision of his own, but not due to his charming personality, just paying back for someone else’s act of saving Saazbaum. In fact, Slaine’s father is to blame for this whole war! “If only I hadn’t come to Earth!” said Asseylum, but if only Slaine’s father hadn’t saved Saazbaum’s life, eh?

Well, time for the last bastion of humanity and all of its death flags raised last episode to come under attack, though we have Inaho to save us! In Inaho we trust.

Thoughts and Notes:

Screenshot album.

1) Martian Domination, Take 20:

“Alex, ‘what are “Death Flags”?'”

1) “I have to say, I didn’t expect them to make a move on this place,” alongside with “I thought this war was supposed to end.” That’s what happens when you don’t consume media, or read literature, you don’t know how death flags work, heh. Someone should make an anime equivalent of the Scream series.

Zankyou no Terror Episode 9 Notes – Picking Sides. On Betrayal.

So, last week was a framing of the conflict. Conflicts need stakes, something you stand to gain, something you stand to lose. With all the explosions, you’d think it’d be lives, but lives of faceless masses, especially where no one died yet isn’t terribly compelling – so we’ve seen Shibazaki’s family, and another detective’s pregnant wife. We’ve seen Lisa get kidnapped.

Stakes have to be personal, and the show, and Five, made it so. Time to see the final(?) conflict, where it’s all up for grab.

So, today is September 11, and they actually delayed an episode so today’s episode would come out on this day. Makes you wonder what’ll happen.

Thoughts and Notes:

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1) Grounding Ourselves:

1) Reminder, everyone having to reaffirm their resolve, “many people could die.” “I don’t care what happens to me,” a line that’s easy, but Five throws in her face it’s her life in question, the life she didn’t really own since Twelve rescued her, and that it’s meaningless, that Twelve’s friendship is meaningless. Then again, different people attribute different worth to the same things.

Summer 2014 Anime Season Week 10 – Haiku Edition! (Anime Power Ranking)

Barakamon and Zankyou no Terror return! Anyway, writing these long posts about this season got tiring, and I like haikus, so this entry will have a haiku per episode! And a line or two more in play text. I hope you like it.

Weekly impressions for Akame ga Kill!, Aldnoah.Zero, Barakamon, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 2wei!, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Sword Art Online II, Tokyo Ghoul, and Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance).

Link in titles leads to full-episode write-ups. Ordered by how much I enjoyed or thought the episodes were good.

Barakamon episode 9:

Handa is a child,
playing with children as one;
Adulthood lurks by.

Media Month in Review – August 2014

I use this post to go over all the media consumed/experienced over the past month, with 2-4 sentences per item. A way to give short thoughts on each topic. Highlights this month: Too much Hearthstone, several Marvelverse films, films from my childhood, and 143 episodes of Hunter x Hunter (2011)!

Movies:

• Matilda – I probably haven’t watched this film since 1998, at the latest. This film shows its warts. While the first 10-15 minutes where we see Matilda growing up with just the narrator to guide us are pretty magical, the acting in this film isn’t the best, and at some points you can see the director went too wild with the “Children Movie silliness”, such as when the schoolkids get rid of Ms. Trunchbull. Still, it was an enjoyable view.
• Jumanji – I’ve probably watched this last around 2001. I’ve meant to watch it a week before Robin Williams died, but I ended up watching it only after. This film isn’t an adventure film, holy shit but is it a horror film! When that vine went for Peter? It gave me flashbacks to The Exorcist, and that film had me run out of the room when I watched it in the 5th grade… I’ve enjoyed it a lot. Well-acted, and fun. Also, only when I went to IMDB did I realize the Hunter going after Alan was acted by the same actor who portrayed his father, similar to how in Peter Pan, the Darling family father also plays the role of Captain Hook.
• Guardians of the Galaxy – I’ve had a lot of fun watching it! It was a silly film, with silly lines, and silly action. I chuckled and laughed and enjoyed turning my brain off for a bit. Also, I kept waiting for “The Guardians of the Galaxy” to appear, which I was sure would be The Green Lantern Corps, which are of course in DC-verse. Still, kept waiting for someone serious to come and save the universe, not our bunch of incompetent walking shticks. Rocket and Groot were really great. Especially Rocket.

Aldnoah.Zero episode 10 notes – Individuals Matter

Last week’s episode was one of my favourites. I actually prefer it when people talk and make clear what matters to them to fights that don’t have stakes, or drag on too long. Last episode we’ve seen Marito try to make progress towards dealing with his past, we’ve seen Saazbaum explain why he does what he does – including how he too blames the Martians, and it concluded with the point that if we’re constantly told to be jealous of something, we’ll try to take it away. And so, Rayet tried to take Asseylum’s life, of which she was jealous, away from her.

I wrote about it last week, but I don’t think Rayet’s actions had been a plot-twist, or an ass-pull, they were built up over the whole episode with her thoughts and Saazbaum’s words. It was a cliffhanger, but we all know the Princess will make it, right? Well, time to see what the crazy kids are up to this week.

Thoughts and Notes:

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1) Stating the obvious:

1) “The Aldnoah Drive shut down.” – “That shouldn’t be possible, so long the Princess lives, no one else can shut it down without her permission!” – Poor Eddelrrituo, your words contain your answer, and it’s also obvious. But then again, people can’t consider what they consider to be the unthinkable. To Eddelrittuo, Asseylum dying is exactly that sort of “unthinkable”, but Inaho knows, “Once you remove everything that’s impossible, the remaining solution, however improbable, must be true,” and it’s actually obvious here, painfully so.

Studying Sinon’s Character Reflects on Kirito’s – Sword Art Online II Episode 10

This episode seems like it was about Sinon, but it was about Kirito, and Kirito’s past. I’ve said this before the season aired, but one of the things this season does, which is not all that subtle, but it’s also not entirely spelled out, is using Sinon’s character, and her character development, to actually explore Kirito, and to retroactively explain his actions and fill him with more depth.

Screenshot Album.

When Kirito is talking to Sinon, he’s actually talking to his past self. “I’m fine with going there and dying on my own. I’d rather die than be weak.” You can also replace that wit “I’d rather die than be depressed”, but who does that remind you of? Why, Beater Kirito, who would fight alone, who would fight against opponents just on the threshold of too strong for him, rather than fight safely. Why? Because if he were to die, it wouldn’t inconvenience anyone else, and it’d be just him dying on his own.