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Viz have finally, finally released the Infini-T Force movie on BD, possibly the first time it's come out in English in the 3 years that it's been out.
This is a real hardware place on the outskirts of the city around here.
Anyway, I just watched an extra episode called Crest of the Stars: Birth. I thought this was related to the story of the first season so it was to be watched around the same time. Little did I know, until after I'd watched it and read its MAL discussion thread, that it actually aired after the second season. It does relate to the first season (technically it's a prequel to the first season), but it has plot details that pertain to information revealed in the second season, I think.
The age of it? I just don't see you watching much anime from before 2000. I mean, I don't either.
So as the new cour of Shadowverse begins, I think I should review how I felt about the third cour;
This was the cour where the story shifted from a fun, spirited card game anime to a very serious "saving-the-world" story. A few episodes at the end of the second cour were spent preparing for the story shift, but by George was the shift massive regardless.
First of all was a set of rules that only really applied once or twice before fading into irrelevance or typical gameplay; the new -but old- opponents our main characters would face whilst trying to collect the Seven Legendary Cards could now dual-play Classes, such as Dragoncraft/Swordcraft. In the initial episodes, they always mentioned what two classes were being played, but sooner than halfway through it didn't really seem to matter, nor was there any major synergy that this affected as the protagonists laid into them.
In addition were the cards provided by the Tree of Woe, which were mainly Shadow Soldier/Commander/General enemies and a few spell cards. Whilst these added to watching the matces play out (such as their unique Last Words ability that allowed for infinite revives as long as another Follower was on the field, and waiting for somebody to gather three Soldiers so they could combine into a General), it never really felt as if the protagonists were super-overwhelmed.
Any pretense of serious harm coming to the protagonists by the regular rogues gallery of likeable supporting characters was quickly decimated by the ridiculously overpowered abilities that most of the Legendary Cards provided. The only ones that seemed reasonable were Mimori's and Kai's, but otherwise the cards did 20 (out of 20) damage and had a litany of super-specific abilities that also did grave amounts of damage.
However, the storytelling improved leagues and bounds. Lucia's episode with his sister was not only lovingly drawn by the animators (it's possibly the best animated episode of the show so far) but cut to the core of his relationship with her, as she was able to voice her frustrations against her brother (ostensibly in order for the shadow possessing her at the time to hurt him psychologically).
Finally, Lucia was able to cast aside his edgy shackles and admit he really likes card games, before re-donning them as his psycho overpowered new Legendary Card ended the battle in a way that really shouldn't be game-legal.
New friendships blossomed between main characters, most notably between Kai and Alice, which was quite unexpected. Kai learned to put aside math when it came to matters of humanity, and Alice finally seemed to accept herself as the idol and the gamer.
Another new friendship, very hard-won, was forged between Mauro and Lucia (yes I've used the English translated name for one and not the other but that's how I remember them) as Mauro's story finally came to a head.
A guy who started out as a psycho revealed the roots of this issues. Having been raised by the enigmatic Leon to become a sacrifice to seal away the Tree of Woe, Mauro's suddenly realized this plan was ridiculous and he'd quite like to live a bit longer than 14 (or however old they are), and so this led his Legendary Card to malfunction before it finally accepted him.
Unfortunately for him, this change of heart proved a ripe opportunity for Hiiro's father to use half the empty shadows the Tree of Woe had afforded him to possess Mauro and turn him into a weapon.
Being Mauro truly is suffering; on one hand, Leon requires you to sacrifice yourself to stop the world being destroyed. On the other, Hiiro's father uses you as the tool of the world's destruction.
Luckily, both ended up failing as Hiiro and Lucia took on a super-charged (40/20 defense, why that is indeed more than is allowed) Shadow Mauro and won the day.
But before we go any further, let's look at Mimori's adventures.
During Mimori's part of this card gathering, I'd assumed she finally got the chance to show off that she really wasn't just a typical bystander character and was somebody special in her own right, as Alice had been telling her for ages.
Leave it to Shadowverse to have her big moment slightly dampened by the fact that she was the only character who required assistance from a non-main character, one of the rogues -Takuya-, in order to not only fully redeem Takuya after stealing her phone during the initial episodes, but also to bring a resolution to the sub-plot involving Takuya's frayed relationship with his older brother Seiya (their opponent for the 2-on-1 match).
Back to the big story; after all the big cards are gathered, and the Hiiro+Lucia versus Shadow Mauro battle is wrapped up, our big villain of the moment makes his appearance.
Hiiro's dad, armed with a set of cards somehow even more ridiculous than Hiiro himself, gives Hiiro a run for his money for two episodes straight, including having a Kirifuda that when evolved becomes four separate followers. Hiiro, for his part, is able to pull even more insanity out of the bag by unleashing the new card Mauro gave him which allows him to combine Ignis Dragon and Infinite Flame Dragon.
Considering that Ignis Dragon was already the most overpowered of the seven initial Kirifuda (yes, that includes Mauro's God of Curses), it was quite the sight to see Hiiro not only get a new more overpowered card in the form of Infinite Flame Dragon, but to then have those two cards combine and deal about 15+25 (40!!!!) damage in the span of one turn.
But this is only the third cour, and the castle in the sky from the OP is yet to appear, so it turns out Leon actually had ulterior motives for getting the kids to gather the Legendary Cards and flash them towards the Nexus of the Tree of Woe.
As I'd assumed earlier, The Nexus is sleeping inside Hiiro's mother, and is the primary motivation for Hiiro's father trying to destroy the world. Destroying the world will complete the Nexus' goal, and thus force it to leave her in order to fulfil it's goal in some other world.
However, that doesn't explain what Hiiro's father intends to do after the world is destroyed, considering both he and his wife are also part of the world. It's possible he just wants to free her from the pain, I guess, but destroying everybody else in service of this goal is a bit much.
So now, Hiiro and company have been sucked into the Nexus, in a permanent dream state in which all of of their deepest wishes have come true. Of course, this is all forced on them so that they don't attempt any further actions against the Nexus.
There wasn't a recap special this time around, owing to the holiday season being packed with programming, but I'm quite okay with that.
One thing I really liked about the Legendary Card arc is that each character was handed their new Kirifuda by the corresponding Leader from the Shadowverse game, which led to a really strange moment when Alice (a tiny twintailed girl who loves to dress up in GothLoli clothing) met Luna (a... tiny twintailed girl who loves to dress up in GothLoli clothing).
Now, let's the honest, the real question of this cour is where the danged heck was Tabeoka Marcel? He is hands-down the best of the supporting rogues gallery. Hopefully he'll make a reappearance sooner rather than later.
As it's GoHands, the plot is basically the K series (special part of Tokyo, bishounens with powers and power hungry agendas, etc) but updated with a look that they've distilled from their Hand Shakers era and lots of very dynamic camera-work during fight scenes.
The whole show reads like art, visually, whereas the plot feels like it's come straight out of a visual novel or drama CD. Something where your imagination makes part of everything else up, so you usually won't notice all the holes where world-building and story should be going.
One very interesting part is that all the backgrounds are intermediate student level Blender CG, and the compositing to get them to work is uh... not solid;
@Stormtroper; seriously, I'm pretty sure if GoHands allowed remote work you would do better than a majority of what's going on, especially when the CG mysteriously extends to characters who are also later portrayed in 2D;
I'm pretty sure this is all being rendered with a PS2.
That is to say, I quite like it.
Well, mayyyyyyyybe I can make a better city.
wings thinks you'd appreciate this and wants you to know it's there:
And I thought Cross Ange was already out on blu-ray? Or maybe there wasn't a box set yet?
https://www.anime-planet.com/users/GlennMagusHarvey/lists/pokeacutemon-episode-counter-personal-li-742903
I haven't yet looked through all the early episodes to see what I've watched. I've almost certainly watched more than just 34 of them in the past.
(It says 35 right now because I just watched The Legend of Dratini, one of the banned episodes.)
I just learned about the forays into anime (and manga and video games) of Aum Shinrikyo, the religious group known for influencing in Japanese politics and health, by promoting simple, spiritual lifestyles and by committing acts of chemical and biological terrorism against the general public.
Apparently they were fairly influential at manga, too.
They are but JC Staff just makes whatever.
I'm really surprised this thread managed nothing but 8 posts in the whole time I was gone but I guess that makes sense.
I guess I'll start with the big highlights, which obviously are the shows that sucked and bombed or were just "meh".
First of all was Wonder Egg Priority; ten years after Madoka, the Aniplex machine tries to create a new version of that lightning in a bottle.
It did not work out.
Apparently the show had some frequent animation errors, but personally I didn't notice until it literally took a three month break between episodes 11 and 12. What I did notice were all the story red flags. I really should have stopped watching at about episode 4, but I didn't. This happened a lot this year.
Wonder Egg Priority had several problems;
Overall, I loved the music, and I wish Anemoria (the unit created for the anime) were attached to absolutely anything else. Thankfully, after the anime garnered many Western fans for it's (allegedly*) anti-gender message and a gay male character (albeit basically just mentioned), it absolutely bombed a Rainbow Mafia story (after already insisting that Boys and Girls are different, an incident that was actually forgiven). The show was quickly accused of transphobia, forever killing it's popularity. In Japan, nobody ever once cared that Wonder Egg Priority as a whole existed, and for this I was glad.
As a result, Aniplex tore themselves apart getting out new Madoka product to make their year-end financials look better, and essentially killed the production schedule for Magia Record 2 (which is now Magia Record 2 and Magia Record 3, each consisting of a very normal 8 episodes. Don't ask any questions, just consoom).
*One of the girls buys her clothes from Brooks Brothers Junior, the end.
Next up was SSSS.DYNAZENON, a sideways sequel to the wildly popular SSSS.GRIDMAN. Now, whilst Gridman was a well put together show, Dynazenon loaded up on irrelevant characters and tried to make it all work. The script was not bad, and many episodes were fun, but you always ended up realizing none of what was going on made any sense or even mattered in the end.
Plot points started and ended on the same note, whilst other things just happened to be red herrings (Chiyo wears arm-bands because she has a tattoo! Where did a middle schooler in Japan get those, who knows!). Chiyo in fact was basically all the red herrings at once, which probably wasn't helped by her being the red-themed character.
Dynazenon was basically the best way to kill any enthusiasm I had for the SSSS universe, for which I am somewhat glad.
Both these shows I regret watching, but one that I actually enjoyed was Digimon Adventure: (yes, Colon), the remake of the original Digimon Adventure. This show was frankly very intolerable most of the time, but at least I had the time to trauma bond and eventually appreciate how nobody but Taichi was ever important. I'll probably write more about this later.
at least I could explain Dog Days' and Dog Days'' as derivatives of the original show [/snerk]
IIRC Wonder Egg Priority was well-liked by someone at HH, but I haven't talked to anyone about it.
And I guess I can go and see what I've watched this year.
major things watched:
* Sora no Method / Celestial Method - a story about friendships, years down the line, set in a setting with a touch of magical realism. It was popular among the Unpopular Anime Supporters group members on MAL so I eventually checked it out. It's good. It's also one of those stories that I don't think would have made sense to me as a kid, because it's very focused on people's emotions and relationships.
* Isekai Cheat Magician - an apparently rather-much-maligned isekai series. The complaints are generally that it's generic. I enjoyed it though. My favorite character is the elf girl.
* the two Little Witch Academia movies - well I finally got around to watching these. The first one I liked more than the second.
* Magi: the Labyrinth of Magic - this felt very shounen (not that that's a bad or good thing itself). For some reason I find myself curious about what happens later but also not really feeling like watching more of it, at least just yet.
* Shinryaku! Ika Musume / Squid Girl - I started watching this years ago, like at least 5 years ago, but only watched the first like three or so episodes. For some reason I finally finished it now. It wasn't as amusing as I had originally expected it to be, but it was still fun. Also, my favorite character turns out to be Eiko.
* A Certain Scientific Railgun S - a while after watching the first season, here I was, finally watching the second season...while the third season (Railgun T) was airing. It's decent, and it has a feel similar to the first season, which is sort of an hybrid between stuff with a long-term gradually-advancing plot and a slice-of-life sort of storytelling style. For some reason, this is a series where I like the characters individually but have never gotten fully invested in the setting.
* Izetta: the Last Witch - this series took me a few months to finish, partly because of stuff happening in my life, but partly also because I felt very emotionally attached to the characters and was afraid of watching more of it. I guess that's a good thing.
* Modern Magic Made Simple / Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou - this odd little series starts off with an OVA that aired before the rest of the show, but which probably takes place somewhere in the middle of it story-wise, so it confused me at first when I watched it. It's probably most noteworthy for its premise -- a modern-day setting where magic (like, actual fantasy magic spells) can be performed by using computers and coding them like they were computer programs. (Seems kinda similar to a background premise in Miss Kobayashi's Maid Dragon, I think?)
* Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid - the one Nanoha TV series I hadn't yet watched. There were mixed opinions on this, and so I was expecting something very fanservicey, but it actually isn't that fanservicey (aside from transformation sequences). On the other hand, the main problem with this is that it sorta ends in the middle of the plotline. (Also, IMO, the Nana Mizuki OP isn't as convincing as I'd hoped.) But I did get to spend time getting to know the characters, but not what eventually happens to them. I had watched its sequel, ViVid Strike, already, so this was useful to get to know the backstory of various characters who showed up there, and it was also nice to hang out with some familiar Nanoha series characters too. And it does have some of the same vibes as a classic Nanoha storyline, while being set in the context of magical MMA like ViVid Strike is. I'm glad I watched this. Well, I also watched it because the characters from here (and also ViVid Strike by extension) show up in the commentary track for...
* Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 2nd A's - this is the second of the Nanoha movies, and a retelling of the second TV series, also known as A's. For some reason, the original A's was sorta meh overall to me (even though it had nice moments), despite it often being the most popular of the three main Nanoha series. But this retelling was very convincing and I enjoyed it a lot.
* Encouragement of Climb / Yama no Susume - I watched the first season. They're sorta short episodes. Not very remarkable IMO, aside from the fact that I was kinda disappointed because I was expecting something like Yuru Camp. Amusingly, I actually had Yama no Susume PTW'd before Yuru Camp, so I expected myself to watch this first.
* New Game! - watched this on a lark, thanks to semi-accidentally claiming Aoba Suzukaze on Mudae, then noticing this had a dub. The story was surprisingly enjoyable, and even relatable, considering that it reminded me of the times when I slept in a cubicle.
* Grimoire of Zero - another show I watched on a lark. Also surprisingly enjoyable. Apparently a distant sequel, more like a spin-off, is coming out next year.
* Machikado Mazoku / The Demon Girl Next Door - this is a thing, I guess. My favorite character is Momo Chiyoda, but overall I wasn't as entertained with this series as I was with Gabriel DropOut or Ms. Vampire Who Lives In The Neighborhood; I think it's that the ironies of the premise/setting took their sweet time to really make themselves clear, and I was overall less attached to the characters.
* Seraph of the End - a pretty convincing action series, despite my not being a huge fan of the main character (or his foil). Actually, make that multiple main characters. But I'm looking forward to watching the second season. Also apparently this is the first Wit Studio show I've watched; I know this because there was a MAL thread about Wit Studio. And while I've never bothered to watch Attack on Titan, I can see the similarity with the combat style of that one guy with twin blades.
Sora no Method: I watched the first four episodes of this, but the drama got too much for me so I quit.
Isekai Cheat Magician: I don't even really know which one this (the one with the i☆Ris OP possibly?) is but I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Little Witch Academia: ehhhh I never really got this franchise.
Magi: I always wanted to watch all of Magi, but never got round to it. I'll solve this by watching the mangaka's new adapted work Orient next year.
Shinryaku! Ika Musume: This is from like 2011.
Railgun: Yeah it's Railgun, haven't watched any since S1 and I don't particularly care to watch more anytime soon.
Izetta: This is one of the best anime of the last decade so I'm glad you have some taste after all.
Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou: Everybody says this is good but as time goes on I've cared less and less so eh.
Nanoha ViVid: This was Seven Arcs trying to pull something new out of Nanoha to keep momentum going, but they never got there. Yeah I know Angel's Feather isn't that great a song too.
Nanoha Movie: yup it's more Nanoha.
Yama no Susume: People really like this show but I don't car much for it.
New Game!: Notable for all the adult females looking like 12 year olds.
Grimoire of Zero: This is also an LN if I'm remembering correctly but I don't know if it's an isekai. It exists for sure.
Machikado Mazoku: I was totally going o watch this but I didn't.
Owari no Seraph: This show had great OPs/EDs but I only ever watched the first two episodes.
So you watched 14 shows and one movie, I wonder if I watched more...
I wouldn't say Modern Magic Made Simple is that great, but it's at least interesting enough that I watched all of it. It can get pretty gratuitously fanservicey, though.
I heard that Nanoha ViVid didn't continue due to some sort of contractual dispute involving Yukari Tamura. (I have not confirmed this info.)
Grimoire of Zero is from a LN but it's not an isekai. Just straight-up fantasy. It also has zero relationship with The Familiar of Zero.
LWA seems decent but I feel like I would prefer a magic school without traditional magic user trappings like using and playing off witch tropes and such. But maybe I'll get around to watching the rest of it at some point.
The later seasons of Encouragement of Climb have longer and more substantive episodes, as I understand it.
I also watched a variety of shorts, including the apparent premiere (via MAL) of the second Santa Company film, and Red Ash (which actually looks legit interesting, despite its reputation).
Aikatsu Planet!: This was a good Aikatsu! show, despite the short length. It was also mostly live action, but it still counts I think. I wish there had been more of it and I'm looking forward to the movie next year.
Shadowverse (Last Cour): This show really delivered throughout despite some of the downs. I can't wait for the sequel series sometime next year.
Digimon Adventure (??th Cour): Yeah I sure watched this. Enjoyable, but intolerable at times.
Skate-Leading☆Stars: Bishounens skate. The plot at times was quite interesting, but I always thought it could use a bit more skating, and maybe a bit more tightness overall. In all honesty, it was probably for the best that it wasn't as solid as it could be, because there was more room for fun that way. I liked it a lot and it was somewhat memorable.
WIXOSS DIVA(A)LIVE: I was glad to have more WIXOSS, and I have a habit of watching these genre shift "dumbed down" versions of previously serious card game anime. The music was appealing throughout, but the animation left much to be desired. Hopefully gets a second season, or WIXOSS does something else entirely maybe.
Wonder Egg Priority: Aniplex's biggest travesty, no doubt.
Spring 2021
Aikatsu Planet! (Second Cour)
CESTVS: The Roman Fighter: This CG anime from Bandai Pictures was a sleeper hit for me. Great in lots of ways, adapting what was necessary even if it meant time-skips, and teaching me way more than I ever needed to know about early Roman boxing and gladiator sports. I just wish it were longer so it could cover the final parts of the manga.
Blue Reflection Ray (First Cour): Man, Blue Reflection was a ride. Every episode had yet another new plot development you couldn't see coming, and each of the characters got their fair bit of screen time, though some did eventually settle and never really change much after that.
Personally, the last two episodes were a real shaky landing, especially after the great things that came before that, which is why I don't really want to remember this show too much.
Seven Knights - Eiyuu no Keishousha: I started watching this on a whim mid-season and man was I ever glad. This was a really solid fantasy show with a good premise and an out of the box plot. Mobage adaptations are pretty hit and miss, but this one was a clear hit.
Digimon Adventure: (??? cour)
SSSS.DYNAZENON: As I said, quite meh and a waste of precious time. Soured me on Tsuburaya SSSS series.
Cardfight!! VANGUARD overDress 1st Season: More on this below.
Summer 2021
NIGHT HEAD 2041: I would say almost brilliant. This was yet another CG anime that impressed me a lot, with a solid story and great themes about the nature of censorship. The other major theme, spirituality, was a bit out of left field and nonsensical. The CG fight scenes looked movie-quality.
Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica Gaiden 2nd SEASON -Kakusei Zenya-: Ah, Madoka spinoff of the overly long name. A really great "Madoka series as action flick" show that had it's fair share of twists. Loses points for making me like TrySail even more than last season did.
Deatte 5-byou de Battle: Another great show that I wasn't really expecting, with a zippy plot and fun action elements. I didn't even mind that it ends long before the manga, because it was that fun.
Digimon Adventure: (Last cour)
Blue Reflection Ray (Second cour)
Fall 2021
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Dai Mankai no Shou: DUuuuuuuuuuuuude YuYuYu series wrapped up in a very memorable way, adapting every LN so far aside from Hero Apocrypha and giving everybody suitable time to shine (except Yuuna herself oddly enough).
It made me glad I stuck with this franchise all throughout, and seeing the LN characters and their stories animated was a real thrill. It might have angered others being 90% adaptation, but there really was very little story to tell in YuYuYu itself, so attaching a much-needed epilogue to the S2 story was fine for me.
Cardfight!! VANGUARD overDress 2nd Season: The overDress incarnation of the Vanguard card game anime series has been all over the place, and I hate to say that this season is ending on a pretty sour note. The first season was pretty much not something I was going to continue based on how inconsistent the story was, and how jumpy plot points could be, but then I got to the ending and the ending really stuck with me.
This second season has also had many good plot points, but I found this last arc pretty lacking. Again, we're stuck with a lot of irrelevant plot points, so I didn't enjoy it too much.
Megaton-kyuu Musashi: Level-5 grow up a bit and create a show outside their typical kid demographic, but still designed to sell a video game. It was pretty great, and it's always nice to see a new mecha anime on the scene, even if it does end with scientists discovering a teenage boy has impregnated an alien (adult) lady who is now dead (but the baby is alive).
BUILD DIVIDE -#00000- (CODE:BLACK): I wonder if inconsistency is suddenly the name of the game in card game anime, but this show had it in spades. However, the final few episodes really brought it all together, despite it being a plotline I'm not too fond of, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up in -#FFFFFF- ie CODE:WHITE (yes, it's a joke).
MUTEKING THE Dancing HERO: Ah yes, another remake that floundered. Tatsunoko's hero reboots so far have been High Quality Complex (Gatchaman CROWDS), High Quality Straightforward (Infini-T Force), so I guess it was time for a 'please never again' one.
The set up was fine, but the budget clearly ran out for the middle part (it picks up again very quickly from episode 10). The story appears to be entirely about how you should never listen to utaite music, and the overabundance of side-characters absolutely did not help. I don't think I'll watch another Tatsunoko hero reboot just because again.
Gundam Breaker: Battlogue: A short six mini-episode promo for the Gundam Breaker series. Was pretty fun and it had a great ED.
Rewatch
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: I rewatched the original Gundam SEED when the HD remaster came out on BD, but I never did the same for the sequel series Destiny. I finally got around to it when a new movie series set in the Gundam SEED universe was announced.
Whilst SEED Destiny frequently reaches the heights of the original series, it does have some points that aren't too great; the use of the alleged "protagonist" in the last cour is weak, and every single Extend death was pretty poorly executed for such major characters (especially Auel). The return of Mu la Flaga was a pretty great development, and the music is even more brilliant than I remember.
So yeah, it was a pretty packed year I guess.
Blue Reflection Ray is somewhere on my PTW I think.
After that I think the closest things I can reply to are "your mention of Gundam SEED Destiny reminds me to watch Gundam 00" and "your mention of SSSS.Dynazenon reminds me to watch SSSS.Gridman".
But this is the anime thread so have this:
Source: https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=419349
(It seems "Literally Who Gives a Shit" is actually titled Monster Soul.)
Gorra remember to watch the other stuff in that channel at some point.