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(2012) Tempest
[2013] Gargantia
(2015) Plastic
[2016] Izetta
[2015] Charlotte
[2014] Bahamut
(2016) Vivid
[2017] Chain
[2016] Grimgar
random other stuff i put (back) on my radar while simply looking through a list with tiny thumbnails (which I mentioned because sometimes those thumbnails are the only reason they're on here)
[2014] Magical Warfare
[2015] Sky Wizards Academy
[2015] World Break
[2015] The Rolling Girls
[2013] Machine-Doll
[2013] Psycho-Pass
[2013] Gatch Crowds
[2013] Freezing Vibrationapparently it's a sequel and it's also a tiddy show[2016] Alderamin
[2016] Planetarian
(2016) Soul Buster
(2016) Qualidea
(2016) Zero
(2016) Phantasy
the numbers are relevant because the source sorts them by year
the brackets...well, the letter D has hard angles while the letter S does not
also tempted to watch more neptunia solely for the reason that it has go love and peace as an ED, but doing so will mean tolerating another two episodes before it appears...sigh
Funnily enough, the technical details in this episode are heavily skewed in Mahiru's favour! Whilst the song isn't especially associated with her (she did perform it at her first ever major magazine column debut live, but that's less relevant than Tsubasa's being from a movie she starred in), her specialty Coord, whilst not being a PR, is practically special enough since it's one of a kind (in-universe), she also activates her aura pretty early and is able to completely transform it; the only person whose performed such a feat so far is S4 (together) in the movie and Yume when she was constantly overdriving.
Yozora, on the other hand, performs the first ever song we saw her perform in the Coord associated with that from DCD Season 1/Spring, she doesn't really do anything special with her performance. Granted, that's what Tsubasa did, but I have this lingering feeling now that Ako would've managed to beat her if she had secured her one of a kind Coord.
Yozora then announces that she's leaving, without any regrets, which makes me think that maybe Yozora threw S4 Selection on purpose so that her sister wouldn't be left with a gaping hole of being unable to achieve her goals. Also in a business sense she's leaving Mahiru to be Romance Kiss' new image model and I bet nobody over at the brand would be happy with having second place take over.
In more alternative (or just realistic) explanations, I notice that aside from Lily and the other admins, there aren't many second year's trying out for S4 and I think I know why. Whilst S4 do get a lot of brilliant opportunities (including starting your own brand if you want), they are heavily controlled by the school and basically all the revenue from their activities is filtered through it somehow (especially the brand stuff, because Headmaster's solution to filling the financial sinkhole aikatsu island! left is to give Lily, a girl not in S4, her own brand* to generate extra revenue).
So if you do make it to year 2 without being in S4, you've probably seen all of this unfold (like, even if you are just a middle school kid) and in order to make yourself a better idol with more control over your image and revenue (and probably even deals with brands), you just leave S4 to the new kids.
Obligatory screencap:
In short, I adapted my five-point rating system:
+2 => 9 = loved it
+1 => 7 = liked it
0 => 5 = meh
-1 => 3 = disliked it (i.e. "it did some things that annoyed me")
-2 => 1 = hated it (i.e. "it did many things that annoyed me")
Added/changed/removed various ratings in my Completed and Dropped lists. (I thought about On-Hold but I declined to add ratings to that.) For Dropped I added ratings only when I really feel I have an opinion of the show -- as opposed to simply 5'ing due to lack of opinion, which I usually left blank instead.
Curiously, though I was already aware of this, my dropped list contains a few shows that I do like, indicating that I'm not dropping them due to disliking the show.
Some raw "working pad" stuff is in the big wonderposting thread, though I didn't completely use all of those and tweaked them as I was entering them, so those numbers aren't even final.
>Nanana implodes after episode 3
>A bit on the edge about all the LN adaptations I plan to watch next cour, especially Zero kara
>Twist: Guy who wrote NGNL co-wrote Clockwork Planet
>Actually I am an idiot for trying to watch yet another Spring LN anime with a fripSide OP after Black Bullet
>Aside from Fukumenkei Noise and Seikasuru Kado, back to the drawing board
I know that even before this I was basically staking all my hopes on the loser, but in this episode I reaffirmed my support for Laura. Aside from Mahiru, who deserved her win because Mahiru is one of the most visibly hard working characters, Laura has been working to find herself versus Yume since very early on. After suffering a major loss against Yume at the halfway point of the series, she really took a lot of time out to rethink herself and what she was trying to achieve.
In that way, I think they really did a great job of finishing up her development this year in a way that wasn't negated by her not winning.
As with every episode in the S4 Selection, we had two performances; one from Laura and one from Lily. Lily is a character who I've liked all series, and if she were to somehow come out on top that would be understandable, but she wasn't even close.
Lily, wearing a unique S4 dress, didn't manage to activate her special dress aura. Plus, she performed the one song she's been known for all series.
Laura, wearing her unique S4 dress, returns to the stage that once embarrassed her to no end; 1, 2,Sing for You!. This time around, instead of having her aura be stolen by Yume mid-show (made worse that it seems like Yume seems to be trodding down on it once she has it), she's able to activate her special aura!
So that puts her at the top of the leaderboard as we head into the main event in the next episode: Yume versus Hime.
I felt way too proud of her right then.
Here's an example of something I can chalk up to "tastes" but just can't really understand at a deeper level, at least to some extent.
https://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=1155
This is a review of Nanoha StrikerS. Spoilers are all over this, so don't read it if you haven't seen the series, unless you really want to. I'll summarize it for you.
Basically, the review starts by recounting the series. Okay. It does point out a few times how cliche or fanservicey (not necessarily in a sexual way -- for example, the review says that there's a character who's sole purpose is to be cute) the show is, and kinda mocks the show a bit for being predictable. I disagree with this, but this...doesn't seem to be by itself the biggest "whoa, what?!" for me.
The first big criticism that the review launches into says that the animation is bad.
Well, I've come across enough instances of people criticizing animation that I was just fine with, so either it's not actually that bad, or I can't notice bad animation, or both. And frankly speaking, I thought it was just fine, so I'm going to argue that it's really not that bad and they're just making it out to be worse than it actually is. (Hey, maybe I just don't notice "bad" animation because I patch things over in my head, due to immersion. But if that's the case, I consider that a plus. Regardless...)
The second big criticisms is against the music. Now, I did feel that this series's music wasn't something that absolutely blew me out of the water, but I did also feel that it's quite solid. I guess a poor soundtrack would be something that didn't match the mood (which I didn't think was a problem), but...that's not their criticism.
They're criticising the music for...being synth.
Really? Not to mention that this same style's been used previously in the Nanoha series.
Anyway.
These two things don't seem to be all that big of a deal even together, so I'm not really sure why these reviewers seem to have had such a big problem with this series (though to be fair they did give it two stars out of five). But perhaps the core reason lies in the conclusion when they say:
But...but...it spent forever to introduce the characters and give their backstory and generally humanize them because that's how we really get to know them and understand them! Otherwise they'd just be more silly stereotypes. And I thought you folks didn't like clichés...
And I also felt that the large cast made it possible to have some interesting character and team dynamics. I'm a bit less enthused when it seems like one person and one person alone is saving the world and everyone is secondary to them -- it's just so much more exciting when there's team efforts going on. And this show? It has team efforts for BOTH the protagonists AND the antagonists.
The only aspect wherein I'll agree that there were "too many characters" is that I couldn't remember which Number was which. But they were still distinct enough that it was clear that they all had their own personalities and minds, which I liked.
Why do you people hate fleshed-out characterization and humanization?
with regards to Hundred:
minor comment on Umi Monogatari:
with regards to Guilty Crown
with regards to Angel Beats
I haven't seen Aquarion, but I definitely agree with the fragmentedness of Angel Beats...except I found an appropriate justification for it, and thus everything makes sense, and as a result that's not a criticism I would make.
See, my chain of thought is not "character is so cute so obviously she can't be a villain" but rather "character is said to be a villain but that just means I need to have a better understanding of why she does what she does and so I can humanize her".
As an aside, I like Yurippe. Which is odd because I don't particularly like Haruhi, and the review draws a similarity between the two.
They criticize the animation again in Arpeggio, and again I didn't notice anything wrong with it.
I guess I'm just...okay with it. Accepting of it. Or whatever. Who knows.
Meanwhile, I did find this line that kinda seems to summarize everything (it's from their Karen Senki review): While I do agree with the opinion that Karen Senki doesn't cover all bases equally well, my point here is the last clause.
FYI, no, I don't just disagree with everything this site says. After all, this site does give a rather poor review of End of Evangelion, and a pretty good review of Umi Monogatari, and a middling review of Karen Senki, and so on. I'm just sorta cherry-picking only those things that I have something to say in response to.
Also, amazingly, I don't have much to say in response to their review of Lagrange S1, aside from pointing out that I so didn't care about that one "incredibly stupid" fanservice scene that I keep on forgetting that it's even in the series until someone reminds me of it, and that besides that I don't see why they only give the show a 3/5. They cite "confusing storytelling choices" but the review reads more positively than that...
Concert animation is hard, animators are people too so I don't blame them when production restrictions or just not animating something ridiculous means a concert is just still frames. I don't even mind inserting CG into stuff where that's not the norm as long a it isn't the worst CG.
I mean, I guess these are genuine complaints but to me I don't watch anime for stunning animation. I'm pretty sure even the people who should know where to expect it because it's not on-tap even half the time in a standard TV anime in reality.
It's actually parsed "THEM Anime", and it's a site for reviews. That's all I know though because they don't have an About page.
halfthree-fifths of StrikerS got.Well if you're specifically looking for action then yeah you'd be disappointed.
On the other hand, though, the Nanoha franchise has a pretty strong tradition of diving into backstory and character development in order humanize that action, and that's what I enjoyed about it. It wasn't just action for action's sake; it gave context to the action before the action took place, and the action isn't the sole centerpiece of the story.
It felt as if the protagonist (Cocona?) was underwriten, sort of like how Taichi is written in Digimon Adventure tri. and the problem with that is that if your protagonist isn't really doing much (especially when she was confronted with the overly insane Papika and then that dymanic just went on) you can't establish any themes. I mean, we can go on about shows where everything was written out for you, but at least they were trying to say something at all.
I can't remember properly, but I think both FLIP FLAPPERS and Comet Lucifer were 8bit original anime, and I feel like they maybe need to work on giving full-bodied characters and stories before ridiculously pretty visuals.
Aikatsu Stars! 49
So, Hime did it. There were a lot of feels, and even though it was a very technical episode (Hime is the only one in S4 to really go all out, spreading her aura to literally everywhere on the stage, and Yume tries her best with expanding her aura but just can't match that).
Also, Koharu shows up on a boat talking about how Yume has inspired her to move on and that she'll be back once she believes she can face them and it was great.
This week's screencap actually comes from an episode waaaaay earlier than this one. Probably 11? I mean, for all intents and purposes, it was how I felt about Hime's solo performance.
On the other hand, Four Rhythm and Fruits Basket are nice.
Aikatsu Stars! ends this cour, but there's one episode left for me. There are a lot of amazing things that have happened with this new series; the songs, the Coords, and most definitely the idols themselves. They're all unique and full of life, and all their varied relationships were fun to keep track of and appreciate (including M4, the first ever male idols to ever katsudou in-show). I enjoyed every episode I watched, which is definitely a feat for a show 50 episodes long.
It gave me one of the best overall underdogs in Laura, and the best Perfect Idol since the Goddess of Aikatsu herself, Mizuki, in Hime. There were performances that genuinely held my breath, and they really gave it their all with the amount of ingenuity they showed with how auras could transform and, at one point, even be stolen away (!). There were episodes that followed up on however they pay for all this stuff, like Lily's randomly Russian benefactor in Gothic Victoria (I swear, I need the idol who came up with that Kiraring brand back at some point) and it even incorporated idols from other schools without having too.
And there was the insanely kawaii-kei Haruka☆Luka!, little touches to the world like Mahiru's friend Kokoro and the admin who clearly wears Bohemian Sky popping up every now and then really carved this show into my heart.
Finally, three entire OPs~
There's a lot still left to do in Hoshi no Tsubasa; I can't wait for Koharu's comeback, to see how the Grade Change or Star Fever effects will work, and, most strangely, to see where Ako's romance with Kanata goes.
Tales of Zestiria the X - Not over yet, but I think it won't change too much towards the end. It was a very interesting show, with lots of characters I loved and that'll stay with me for a while. It also had a very nice take on the spiritual stuff as a whole, without making it too weird. I think it's hard to talk about it without going into specifics about what I liked, but in general it was a great adaptation that probably improved on where the source material screwed up.
ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu ka - Oh ACCA, I wanted to love you so badly. But that weird Aryan Fantasy set-up at the end really screwed things up. I mean, it was this show's love of the perfectly timed reveal that lifted my spirits after a somewhat weak episode 3, but then the emotional beats just came off and I couldn't really deny what was blatantly racist set-up for the villains, especially when they were technically in the right. The finale also really didn't do much in terms of making the heroes come off well, because they prioritized barely-there peace over trying to actually fix their problems. Still, I don't regret watching it, and I did still enjoy it throughout.
Kemono Friends - I didn't think there would be much for me to say about this. I powered through the middle of this through sheer willpower, because it was genuinely boring at times. When the finale rolled around, I was surprised at how fond of it I felt, but I'm glad I didn't feel like I had wasted my time afterwards. I also learned a lot about animals I didn't even know existed and there are quite a few of them who were more fun that they should have been. The overall plot, when it existed, was also intriguing and non-standard, which is always a plus.
Obvious Watches
- Aikatsu Stars! Hoshi no Tsubasa
- Seikaisuru Kado
- Frame Arms Girl
Will Check Out- Alice to Zouroku
- ATOM - THE BEGINNING
- ID-0
Commitment-Phobia ShowsShorts
This list is way too complicated.