Spring 2014 Anime Season Overview

The Spring 2014 anime season had come and gone, and it’s time to look at the wreckage, see what was worthwhile, and what wasn’t, as well as give some thoughts on each of the shows. Some of these might yet get editorials, depending on energy levels and interest on my part, but if not, I’ll always be able to point at this!

Shows organized by how much I liked them or thought they were good, order doesn’t correlate 100% to the scores given. So, let’s go from worst to best!

15) M3: Sono Kuroki Hagane / M3 The Dark Metal:

Look at this gif, it’s so terrible it’s hypnotic, I call it “boobie-balls”. It’s the best worst part of this show. This Mari Okada show is a take on NGE, as the other is a take on Madoka. This isn’t to say they’re actively trying to mimic those other luminary shows, but the point is it feels tired, it feels trying too hard.

Mekakucity Actors Episode 10 Notes – Monsters and Humans. A Story of Love Gone Wrong

(Note: Episodic notes are still mostly to be found on the Episodics Notes’ page, but up to a couple every week will have their write-up appear on the main page, when I think they warrant it. For those who don’t know, I take the notes as I watch the episode, and merely re-order them afterwards.)

So, we have a goal – rescuing people, and an enemy, the Queen of Snakes, and The Monster’s mystery, and Mary is her host, set to take over this world, and Ene’s body is still here, and Ayano’s father is controlled by the enemy! What’s going on?! Well, time to see where they go with this, now that we finally have both conflict and direction.

(Screenshot album for this episode.)

Thoughts and Notes:

1) Humans and Monsters – A Tale of Love and Fear:

1) Hm. The Mother-monster, calling her love “that idiot”, and acting all tsundere with worry. Come on anime, we don’t have to do it like that! We do see some facial expressions showing care. Her daughter, the half-monster and half-human, truly reminded one of Mary, didn’t she? And the episode’s title is Mary’s song, where she ends up abandoned in a house in the forest, so could she literally be the monster’s daughter, not just containing her spirit? Or rather, she has the spirit of the Serpent now.

Spring 2014 Week 10 Impressions – (Anime Power Ranking)

As usual, shows listed by order of my enjoyment of said episode, links to longer write-ups. Mushishi was here this week! But due to tests and such I had a bit less energy for this season, as it’s winding down, rather than winding up for exciting finales. Two episodes’ worth of Chaika, since I’ve missed it last week.

1) Ping Pong the Animation episode 9

 

This episode is about the return of the past. Sakuma and Beach guy? Sure. But how about two friends who are going to fight for the top spot (assuming Peco beats Kazama), where one of them has knee-problems, and the other doesn’t want to harm his friend’s dream? Reminds you of Coach Koizumi and Kazama’s grandfather, eh? Smile had also been told that he’ll harm his opponent if he gives him the win, and Obaba had said Smile has no mercy, and is a monster.

Mekakucity Actors Episode 9 Notes – Red Leader and The Sinister Serpent!

(Note: Episodic notes are still mostly to be found on the Episodics Notes’ page, but up to a couple every week will have their write-up appear on the main page, when I think they warrant it. For those who don’t know, I take the notes as I watch the episode, and merely re-order them afterwards.)

So, last episode ended with Shintaro discovering Ayano is related to the Mekaku-dan, with Mary standing over him, and finally a sense of direction in terms of goals – discover Hiyori and Kokonoe (*Haruka), and trying to find out if more loved ones can be saved from The Serpent.

A lot of screenshots this episode, so here is the screenshot album. I’ll include the most (visually) relevant ones in the piece itself.

Thoughts and Notes:

1) Time with Family:

1) Ayano’s mother is telling her the story of the monster. Considering it’s Ayano’s voice narrating it at the end of every episode, it makes sense. Well, stories also supposedly shape our view of the world – Some humans are monsters, beware loneliness, be careful of what you wish for, and nothing beats time spent with family. Sounds about right.

Spring 2014 Week 9 Impressions – (Anime Power Ranking)

As usual, shows listed by order of my enjoyment of said episode, links to longer write-ups. Another week without Mushishi leaves us orphaned. Drama had been fairly good this week, while popcorn was being its normal popcorny-stuff.

1) Ping Pong the Animation episode 8

This show isn’t messing around. It doesn’t throw surprise punches at you, but sets up the characters logically, and then lets them act out their natures.

Kazama doesn’t believe in heroes, which means that not only does he not look up to others, but he also doesn’t see himself as a hero. He doesn’t seek to lead his team as a “leader”, but as a symbol of unflagging prowess. He cares not for the psychology of it, and it seems he doesn’t care for them either. No heroes, but there is money, and there are symbols, symbols such as the school. His is a cold world, one of powers, and not people.

Mekakucity Actors Episode 8 Notes – These Borrowed Lives of Ours

(Note: Episodic notes are still mostly to be found on the Episodics Notes’ page, but up to a couple every week will have their write-up appear on the main page, when I think they warrant it. For those who don’t know, I take the notes as I watch the episode, and merely re-order them afterwards.)

The last two episodes have done quite a lot of work, first they made us care for some characters, after spending too long with talking heads. Then they showed us how the various threads of fate connect – Momo’s teacher, Takane and Haruka, Shintaro and the Mekaku-Dan. All know one another.

And then we saw the danger of wishes, tying us to the serpent at the center of it all. But the question is where do we go from now? How does this knowledge, or the outside world forces the characters to actually do something?

(I took 39 screenshots. Not going to insert them all, so here is the complete album.)

Thoughts and Notes:

1) Trying To Find Our Way in Escher’s World:

1) “A new girl?!” is what I thought, but then we hear the name “Tsubomi”, which means it’s Kido of the green hair. She left behind her “sister”. This “sister” has red hair, like Ayano, who was also called “Sister” but Kido. And yet, I don’t think they’re the same person. But the fact fate repeats itself and replaces one older sister with red hair for another might not be accidental.

Spring 2014 Week 8 Impressions – (Anime Power Ranking)

As usual, shows listed by order of my enjoyment of said episode, links to longer write-ups. This was a pretty good week! While most popcorn shows had somewhat bored me or failed to do as well as they did in the past, everything else did really well!

1) Mushishi Second Season episode 7

After a week without it, Mushishi is back, and boy does it come out swinging. I think it’s my favourite episode of the season, after the marvelous second episode. There’s not a lot that happened in this episode, there’s not much symbolism, or characters taking action, or anything you can point at and say “This! This is why this episode, and why Mushishi are so great!” – it was a story of human loss, of a human being swept away by the grand forces of Mushishi, emotions, and loss.

Mekakucity Actors Episode 7 Notes – For The Slain, for Future Pain

(Note: Episodic notes are still mostly to be found on the Episodics Notes’ page, but up to a couple every week will have their write-up appear on the main page, when I think they warrant it. For those who don’t know, I take the notes as I watch the episode, and merely re-order them afterwards.)

So, last episode not only had been a solid first episode, it was a pretty good episode. I even cared for Ene’s emotional state at the end of it! Now we need to see how we got from episode 6 to episode 1, and Ene had left Haruka alone, Haruka who has health issues. This will likely be a sore point.

Another thing we need to see is how and why Ayano died exactly, because it feels as if that is the event everything revolves around.

I took 41 screenshots this episode. I’m not going to embed them all, so here is the album.

Thoughts and Notes:

1) Talking of Ourselves…

Spring 2014 Week 7 Impressions – (Anime Power Ranking)

It’s a bit late, cause I’ve been tired, but here they are! Some lengthier write-ups for several shows! I should move to writing just these, honestly, for most shows. Welp, just checked, this post is quite long. Yeah, I could definitely move to just these, instead of episodic notes, and this is almost too long as well.

Shows listed in order of enjoyment. Links are to lengthier write-ups.

1) Ping Pong episode 6

This episode wasn’t as big on “plot” in terms of events happening, as it was on explaining to us our cast, and being thematically heavy (rather than rich). We’ve dealt with heroes and monsters. With death and revival. Peco had an awesome “I am a Golden God!” moment, and Sakuma came out of nowhere to reinvigorate him.

Spring 2014 Anime Midseason Overview (Part 2/2: Non-Action)

Mid-season of the anime season of Spring 2014 is upon us, so time to round up how I feel about the shows I’m current on. Due to the length of the list, I split it in half. The first part covered action shows. This part covers all the rest of the shows.

Shows are listed in order of enjoyment. Numbers are order on the list, and in parenthesis the order in the joint list, comprised of 13 shows. The first three shows in this section are my favourite three shows of the season, and they’re all at basically the same spot. They’re all winners.

1 (1) Ping Pong the Animation

This show isn’t all that interested in telling us a story we hadn’t heard before. That’s fine, because there aren’t many such stories. This series is interesting in not merely a well-constructed story, but also in one that is well-told. The acting is solid, and the characters are believable. You can understand what is at stake when every conflict is had, or what its purpose is – such as when they use a conflict in the first episode for a third character to look at it and explain to us what is really going on, which in retrospect shows that the “stake-free conflict”, due to how it’s the same conflict that had been ongoing for a while is merely a character’s never-ending capitulation.