Spring 2015 Anime Overview – Week 7 (Anime Power Ranking)

I’m sort of busy right now in real life with many assignments being due for school (ah, the grad student life), so there might not be an overview next week. Well, with how I’m feeling about this season, maybe it is for the best.

As always, the list is ordered by how much I liked the episodes, combined with how good I thought they were, in a descending order (first is best, last is worst).

1) OreGairu S2 Episode 7 (SNAFU Too!):

This was an interesting episode. While it didn’t have the high drama of episode 2 with Hachiman’s self-sacrificing fake-confession and his friends’ disapproval, nor Hayama and Haruno’s scenes with him in episode 4, outright calling him a “Monster of Rationality” or telling him to stop sacrificing himself, but this episode might have been more powerful in its quiet moments. This episode shows us the results of a season and a half of Hachiman trying to grow, of admitting how much it is a mask he’s maintaining, and how he’s ready to admit it’s not the best thing for him or those around him.

Spring 2015 Anime Midseason Overview

Mid-season of the anime season of Spring 2015 is upon us, so time to round up how I feel about the shows I’m current on, or decided to put on hold. A round-up telling you what I think is worthy of your time, or not, and where it’s at. This season I decided to pick up less shows than usual, and hold off what I expected will be “averagish”, so let’s see how it panned out.

Tiers are in-order of enjoyment/evaluation. Within each tier the order is alphabetical. Also, each show will get a couple of words about how the past week’s episode had been, because I’d rather jot these down.

Great:

OreGairu Season 2 (SNAFU Too!):

If you keep at things for long enough, things will boil over and drama will ensue. The light atmospheric comedy of the first season is rarely seen, and instead Hikigaya Hachiman is brought to task over the way he “solves” things. It’s as if the finale to the Cultural Festival arc was stretched into an entire season. Yes, Hachiman is still allowed to perform his “cool martyr” act, and people who really want to can still believe it’s everyone around him who sucks, but the show, and Hachiman know it’s he who suffers. A very sharp take on human interaction and loneliness. If you liked the first season for “cool Hachiman” and the more standard RomCom antics, you might be disappointed, but otherwise? Pretty great.

Spring 2015 Anime Overview – Week 5 (Anime Power Ranking)

A lot of words spent on how things don’t always work for me this week. OreGairu worked, Ore Monogatari did too. It’s something about “My” (Ore), I guess. More seriously, aside from stand-out moments this week had a lot of moments I enjoyed, even as most episodes were underwhelming.

As always, the list is ordered by how much I liked the episodes, combined with how good I thought they were, in a descending order (first is best, last is worst).

1) OreGairu S2 Episode 5 (SNAFU Too!):

This has been the show’s weakest episode this season aside from the very first one. It also means it was stronger than all but one episode in the first season, and stronger than most anime episodes out there in general. Just like every other week, I wrote a full episodic-notes post for the episode, where I break down all the interactions. This episode in particular had several moments of interest, and of hope, and then despair.

Spring 2015 Anime Overview – Week 4 (Anime Power Ranking)

Another week, another batch of episodes. Going to be shorter about most this week, as I’ve wasted some time elsewhere. Some shows are finally “starting”, while most others are going as they did before, for better and for worse.

As always, the list is ordered by how much I liked the episodes, combined with how good I thought they were, in a descending order (first is best, last is worst).

1) OreGairu S2 Episode 4 (SNAFU Too!):

Another episode of OreGairu S2, another monstrously long and in-depth breakdown by myself? You don’t say! I might have gone overboard, as I think this is my longest episodic write-up to date. Just like with NagiAsu back in the day, breaking down social interactions is interesting. It’s something we all live and breathe in, and take for granted, so supposedly it shouldn’t take much space. But, there’s nothing that’d take more space were you to actually break it down.

Spring 2015 Anime Overview – Week 3 (Anime Power Ranking)

This was not a good week. Not for my mood, and sadly, this week’s bounty of shows had done very little indeed to improve my mood, with most shows being underwhelming if not flat out bad. Knights of Sidonia episode 2 wasn’t watched this week, so it’d appear in next week’s write-up.

As always, the list is ordered by how much I liked the episodes, combined with how good I thought they were, in a descending order (first is best, last is worst).

1) OreGairu S2 Episode 3 (SNAFU Too!):

Well, another episode where I had a lot to say. This seems to be the trend with OreGairu this season. Thankfully, the other trend is that the show continues to be very good this season, building on everything that went on up to this point, and taking it further, without holding back its punches.

Spring 2015 Anime Overview – Week 2 (Anime Power Ranking)

The season started! Premier write-ups for Punch Line, Ore Monogatari!! (My Love Story!!), and Sidonia no Kishi S2 (Knights of Sidonia), and episode 2 write-ups for everything else. While most episodes this week were decent, I felt it was weaker than last week.

As always, the list is ordered by how much I liked the episodes, combined with how good I thought they were, in a descending order (first is best, last is worst).

1) OreGairu S2 Episode 2 (SNAFU Too!):

I sure had a lot to say about this episode. I mean, here’s a full episodic notes post for it, and here’s a lengthy post-episode editorial detailing the show’s breakdown of self-loathing, and how it relates to the wish of maintaining the status quo, and both leads to self-loathing, and is one’s “punishing” of one’s self for said self-loathing. This season seems to go straight for the jugular in how much it directly attacks the manner in which the characters are built, and how they interact with one another. Or perhaps I just notice it even more since it builds on all that came before.

Spring 2015 First Impressions

Having watched seven shows, all of the ones premiering on the first week of the season, it’s time for a short round-up post where I share my impressions of them. As I actually wrote something longer for each of these shows, I’ll keep it brief, and link to the lengthier impressions post.

As always, the list is ordered by how much I liked the episodes, combined with how good I thought they were, in a descending order (first is best, last is worst).

1) Plastic Memories Episode 1:

Plastic Memories is off to a great start. Its direction has a great knack for comic timing, and even if all the gags are physical or old hand, they take just the right amount of time, or are carried so fluidly and naturally that they don’t draw undue attention when they don’t wish to. The drama tearworks were reserved for the episode finale, and even there, the choice of what to show and when to show had greatly enhanced the effect.

Plastic Memories Episode 1 – The Means of Soul Production

Oh man, this was really good. I’m going to have to stop myself, because otherwise my post on the first episode could easily balloon into a couple thousand words. But in short? This was really good.

Presentation:

Not a lot to say here, so I’ll keep this short. The art is fine, more of a style I associate with slice-of-life comedies. Rather soft. It’s… fine. The palette is very blue-centric, with blues and green-blues, alongside with outright neons everywhere helping to give this a more futuristic look.

Spring 2015 Anime Season Preview and Expectations

Spring 2015 is starting soon, and unlike most seasons, this time my post is done more than a day or two before the shows start dropping, hurray! I actually took time and wrote this monstrous post over two days, so I’m not entirely drained.

As always, in these posts I cover shows I plan to follow, or have thoughts on why I will not follow them, or considered following and decided not to. As always, I try to strike a balance between giving you enough information on the show, and telling you why I think it is or isn’t worth watching. Shows ordered by day, and by expectation within the day, since I might pick or not pick a show up based on how busy that day is. That’s only sensible. Unlike past seasons, I included “Almost In” as a new category, describing shows that I’d pick up in prior seasons, but decided to put aside in order to make more time for backlog, after growing unhappy with how many shows I pick up end up “not worth the time”, even, let alone “good”.

Most of the information about the shows can be had from 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, or information on shows I didn’t cover (such as follow-ups to shows I don’t watch).

Sunday:

Arslan Senki / The Heroic Legend of Arslan – An 80s epic fantasy series, a contemporary of Lodoss. This anime is an adaptation of the modern and ongoing adaptation by Hiromu Arakawa, the mangaka behind Fullmetal Alchemist (which I liked), and Gin no Saji (Silver Spoon, the anime adaptation of which I liked). As the manga adaptation is ongoing, and anime is often used to help market source material, I wonder if we’ll be allowed a conclusive ending, as the original material is there, or if we’ll be forced to wait, or told to go and follow the manga?

The material is there, but the studios are mostly known for shorts such as Aiura and Miss Monochrome, or shows such as Terra Formars or Arpeggio of Blue Steel. Abe Nokiyuki as the director is known for Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho, Great Teacher Onizuka, and well, Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler), while the script composition is handled by the very prolific Uezu Makoto (Katanagatari, Humanity Has Declined, School Days, Danganronpa, and many more).

This is the show I have the most hopes for this season, but production is looking a tad iffy. I really hope they pull it through.
Interest Rating: 2/3. Epic fantasy? Good source material? I’m in. Though maybe I should just read the source material, eh?
Airing Date: April 5th. Preview.