What Anime are you watching?

[jonhammstein]

I started Ascendence of a Bookworm. Nothing else. Unless you count rewatching Twelve Kingdoms.

Oh, and I watched a few eps of Dna2. I'm on mobile so too lazy to make the number two tiny and floating so that reads as "squared." It's okay. Merla was all "this is for teen boys." And I was like, "well, yes." Lots of fan service of the female characters. I think the show still retains that 90s charm about it. Not fantastic but not bad. I'll say it's "upper middle of the road." Probably why I watched the first few eps, the last one and then never picked it back up.

Wow, this sent me down a rabbit hole. I was like, "DNA˛? That sounds familiar." Googled it, immediately recognized the female lead. "What else did this author produce?" I"s! And of course... Iria! Remember "videl" from Beast Mayhem? Like twenty God damn years ago, man...

[jonhammstein]

Maaaaaaaaaaaan... CG? Why? I was so excited when I read they were animating this. All hype is now deceased.

[B E C K]

I started Ascendence of a Bookworm. Nothing else. Unless you count rewatching Twelve Kingdoms.

Oh, and I watched a few eps of Dna2. I'm on mobile so too lazy to make the number two tiny and floating so that reads as "squared." It's okay. Merla was all "this is for teen boys." And I was like, "well, yes." Lots of fan service of the female characters. I think the show still retains that 90s charm about it. Not fantastic but not bad. I'll say it's "upper middle of the road." Probably why I watched the first few eps, the last one and then never picked it back up.

Wow, this sent me down a rabbit hole. I was like, "DNA˛? That sounds familiar." Googled it, immediately recognized the female lead. "What else did this author produce?" I"s! And of course... Iria! Remember "videl" from Beast Mayhem? Like twenty God damn years ago, man...

HA.  That's exactly what happened to me.  I was all "This has gotta be the same dude who designed Iria." And then I thought about videl. I wonder what videl's doing today.

Maaaaaaaaaaaan... CG? Why? I was so excited when I read they were animating this. All hype is now deceased.

That's what happened to me and Beastars. But I've been hearing good things about that adaptation so maybe I'll give it a chance after all.  But, shit, dat stiff-looking CG.

[jonhammstein]

No! Beastars is CG, too? The fuck, man. Argh. Like, I get it. But they've got a long way to go before CG anime is on par with the standard stuff.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

This season has no standout yet. Of course, I'm hopelessly behind on watching much of anything...I have backlogs from nearly 10 years ago. I shouldn't even bother with it anymore given that I only really enjoy a handful every year and don't have time to watch more than a couple per season.

[B E C K]

I started another donghua: Mo Dao Zu Shi or The Founder of Diabolism. Basically in the xianxia category. It's on Youtube. It's produced by the same company that produced The King's Avatar. Like that show, there's the meat of a good story here and lots of interesting characters but the show works more to advertise the story than it does to actually tell the story. It also has a lot of sameface like The King's Avatar and every other character is hot, the latter of which is really only bad because of the sameface issue. I mean, they wear different colors in this show so you can tell all of the clans apart and yet there's still the sameface problem. Also, like The King's Avatar, it has a prominent sponsor: Cornetto. The sponsor stuff wasn't a big deal imo with King's Avatar because there's context for them to be eating McDonald's but seeing these fantasy martial arts characters eating Cornettos in the middle of the episode is both jarring and funny.

OH, oh, yeah and I almost forgot: if you search this series on the internet, you're gonna get a lot of gay content. The two main characters fall in love and the author states they're gay but the story is not a gay story with fantasy elements, it's a fantasy story with gay characters. (Although they seem more like one guy's bi and the other one has oneitis for the MC.) Anyway, being Chinese media, it's more subtly played out than, say, a Japanese BL show would do it.

[jonhammstein]

Dorohedoro has actually been pretty good so far. I got over the CG pretty quickly.

[Faye Valentine]

That is, if you forget the last several episodes when they went anime-original to try to put a bow on a story that would continue another 14 manga volumes. Which in hindsight overstayed its welcome itself for my part, but the closing manga arc was awesome.

I actually wrote a review of it thirteen years ago. Good Lord, that's a long time ago.

Oh fuuuck are you serious? I need to know tho: Does he ends up with the lady teacher?

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

In the anime, no. In the manga...maybe?

Man, I was really into that show in the day. I even did a GTO web page that was more an exercise in HTML formatting than anything, which has apparently failed in the intervening years of W3C conventions. Oh, well...

[Faye Valentine]

So found out that Rumiko Takahashi is not above other thirsty authors (looking at you Hideaki Anno) and decided to start milking Inuyasha again. New anime about Sesshomaru and Inuyasha's kids. I hate it already but of course I will watch it. Need to find out who daddy Sessh decided to bang (pls no Rin)

[B E C K]

I'm watching Tower of God. Although it's more like Tower of Stu given what a Gary Stu the main character is. The worldbuilding and the other characters seem kinda interesting but the main guy is MEH. Don't know how much longer I'll stick with it.

Also, Ascendance of a Bookworm 2. I wish this show had a bigger budget and more episodes to it. It feels like a much more complex story was simplified. But it's a nice show so I'll take what I can get.

I forgot that Fruits Baskets already started it's second season but I'll probably binge-watch it with Merla once it's done.

Also, binged on My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! I didn't expect to enjoy this one as I much as I do since it's yet another "I died and am in a video game world" isekai show. I love the dense, tree-climbing protag farmer-noble with shit-magic. Really an example of how giving the main character depth and flaws makes her endearing, even among a cast where all of her hot friends appear to be in love with her.

So found out that Rumiko Takahashi is not above other thirsty authors (looking at you Hideaki Anno) and decided to start milking Inuyasha again. New anime about Sesshomaru and Inuyasha's kids. I hate it already but of course I will watch it. Need to find out who daddy Sessh decided to bang (pls no Rin)

I looked this up--Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon--and it seems really interesting. My huge gripe with Takahashi was her having characters that didn't grow or change. Like Ranma 1/2 which ran for like nine years with little to nothing of significance occurring nearly the entire time. At least this sequel will acknowledge characters growing up and having lives. And it's an anime thing so it doesn't appear to be something she's gonna draw for years and years until it's stale and ground into the dirt.

And, sorry to dash your hopes, but one of the girls looked like Sesshomaru crossed with Rin. I think Rin got Usagi Drop'ped.

Edit to add synopsis:

The daughters of Sesshomaru and Inuyasha set out on a journey transcending time! In Feudal Japan, Half-Demon twins Towa and Setsuna are separated from each other during a forest fire. While desperately searching for her younger sister, Towa wanders into a mysterious tunnel that sends her into present-day Japan, where she is found and raised by Kagome Higurashi’s brother, Sota, and his family.

Ten years later, the tunnel that connects the two eras has reopened, allowing Towa to be reunited with Setsuna, who is now a Demon Slayer working for Kohaku. But to Towa’s shock, Setsuna appears to have lost all memories of her older sister. Joined by Moroha, the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome, the three young women travel between the two eras on an adventure to regain their missing past.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

...Ascendance of a Bookworm 2. I wish this show had a bigger budget and more episodes to it. It feels like a much more complex story was simplified. But it's a nice show so I'll take what I can get.

Also, binged on My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! I didn't expect to enjoy this one as I much as I do since it's yet another "I died and am in a video game world" isekai show. I love the dense, tree-climbing protag farmer-noble with shit-magic. Really an example of how giving the main character depth and flaws makes her endearing, even among a cast where all of her hot friends appear to be in love with her.

These are on my list this season as well. I don't know what it is about Ascendance that makes it so endearing, but there it is...it's endearing. I stopped watching Next Life as a Villainess for a bit to let it build up. Not sure if it'll continue to be as enjoyable as it was in the early goings, but I'm about to find out soon.

[Faye Valentine]

And, sorry to dash your hopes, but one of the girls looked like Sesshomaru crossed with Rin. I think Rin got Usagi Drop'ped.

Rin looked pretty generic, brown eyes and brown hair, and if you don't remember most if not all non-demon women in the anime had brown eyes (Kagome's sometimes turned blue tho for some reason).
heres a pic I found in reddit to show this, pls delete if the f- word is not approved

[B E C K]

Ha ha, that bingo. But I don't put it past Japan to make the mother Rin. I'll be happy if it's not.

Anybody watching Gleipnir or whatever it's called? Is it any good? It seems interesting but also, um, not. Just curious if anyone here had an opinion on it.

Started watching Fruits Basket S2. Meh. My prior enthusiasm has greatly decreased. Something to pass the time I guess. I think I've seen too many anime that some of these tropes just wear me down now. Like the little kid characters seem to add nothing but filler. And the love interest being an abusive little turd gets to me. Stop hitting her on the head. It's not funny. Abusive behavior against others is just played for laughs too often in this show. He starts a fight with his cousin--a boy filled with his own trauma--and it's seen as some heartwarming moment. Gross.

[jonhammstein]

I watched the first episode of Gleipnir and flagged it as something to chell out later. I'm trying to think of a word to describe it.

Off-putting?

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

Nami yo Kiitekure (Wave, Listen to Me!) is a hoot...26 year old cranky chick gets shanghaied by a radio producer after recording a drunken rant and broadcasting it. It's an insta-watch every week.

Listeners isn't. I quit watching after falling asleep in the middle of the third episode. It involves a boy finding a musical girl who can control an amp-based mecha against enemies called the Earless. Meh.

Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai continued this season, and while it may not be as fun as the first season it's still pretty good. It's a mutual love between the student council president and vice president, but neither will be the first to proclaim it in fear of "losing" to the other. I like it.

Arte was pleasant at first, but it sort of started to grate on me. 16th century Venetian girl wants to be an artist but has to bust the glass ceiling five hundred years before women's lib to do it. I intend to start watching it again probably this weekend.

Otome Game no Hametsu Flag was mentioned earlier. I picked it back up, and it actually got better. Girl "reincarnates" as the villainess of a dating sim and does everything possible to keep herself from being the bad guy with unintended consequences: everyone starts to love her instead of the protagonist, including the protagonist. It's cute and funny.

Ascendance is, again, endearing, but I haven't watched the past month's worth of eps...just letting it build up.

Princess Connect! Re: Dive is another isekai-style show that hasn't really tipped its hand, but it appears to have a twist coming soon. It's based on a game, apparently, but it doesn't immediately suck. It features a retinue of fantasy RPG girls going around having fun with a hapless dude with fabulous secret powers that he doesn't know anything about. I shouldn't like it, but I do.

And there's my Spring 2020 anime pull-list.

[B E C K]

Tried watching "Wave, Listen to Me" and Arte. With the former, I liked some of the characters but not really the protag. The type of humor she portrays isn't my style: manic, bugged-eyed, and screaming. I think there's a good story there but that story's with the radio station and the people that work there.

Arte... I don't know what it is that turns me off about it exactly. The ignorant noble girl who doesn't appreciate what her class affords her? The paint-by-numbers plot points where you can watch and predict the story beats before they happen? The shit-depiction of Italy ruining my immersion? Or maybe how we have to have the ha-ha animu moments that destroy what little levity the more serious moments had? Like when all her art's burning, she should be losing her shit. Instead, she runs up to her Mom all "Mooooom" and does a silly anime pose with some flames. Or when she's asking to be an apprentice and men are literally throwing her and her art around and she's, just, bummed but fine. I didn't believe for a second she would've cut her tits off. She barely reacted to anything happening to her. I can't emotionally invest in your story if you don't give a shit either, girl.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

Wave would do better if it had a "pop-up video" feature like the localized version of Excel Saga did. There's a lot you can miss based on the translation that just occasionally gets through by visual cues or subtitle notes. It's one reason the Monogatari series was hard to get into before a solid translation effort was made.

Arte, now that I think about it, is basically the exact same thing as a sports anime. Which probably explains why it trailed off for me as I don't typically care for those.

[jonhammstein]

Have any of youse checked out Dorohedoro? It's available on North American Netflix now.

[B E C K]

It's on my list but I didn't start it yet. I had Netflix remind me too but I was watching something else that day. I didn't remember again until Sunday. Hope to start it this week.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

Still can't use Netflix. Hopefully that'll change if/when the local electric cooperative gets funding for rural fiber internet like they're trying to. Until then all I can do is download a show over the course of a few nights.

[B E C K]

I wanted to like Dorohedoro but I just can't. It's setting and grittiness should lend itself to a gruesome, suspenseful adventure. Instead it tries to be funny every three minutes. Imagine if the movie Se7en had magic in it and tried popping jokes every few minutes. You don't have to. Watch this show.

If it was capable of actually being funny, I could still find some enjoyment in it. Except none of the jokes landed. It felt like edgy kid humor. At least if a kid wrote this I would be impressed by the world building. Instead, it all feels wasted.

Most of the characters are unlikeable for the fact they can't be consistent. It's like they're all schizophrenic. The girl is supposed be capable but she's also stupid. The croc guy is serious but goofy. There's no problem having different aspects of one's character but it's complete fucking tonal whiplash:

Look. How horrifying. Her face came off and it's hanging off his teeth.
Look. How funny. Her face came off and it's hanging off his teeth.

Look. How terrible. His friend crushed his eyeball.
Look. Ho ho ho. His friend crushed his eyeball.

Look. How gruesome. Bloody body parts were in that cheap trash bag.
Look. How funny. It was a cheap trash bag so all the bloody body parts came out.

Every other scene is this way. This show wants it both ways. But I can't find it horrifying if it's treated like a joke and I can't laugh if it's supposed to be horrifying. It neutralizes like baking soda and vinegar so I just feel, like, blah about it.

[B E C K]

Tried watching one episode of Drifting Dragons and couldn't be arsed to pay attention.

[B E C K]

Still like Ascendance of a Bookworm best this season but the most recent episode felt like one of the weakest with it's mustache-twirling nobleman literally threatening to stab a little girl.

I wish more of the characters in this show were less binary: they either champion Main or they want to ruin her. Now it helps immensely that almost all of the ally characters are not 100% in her corner at first because this creates some conflict and tension. But the problem is everyone eventually falls in line perfectly. People that don't like Frieda and her grandfather just go into the sidelines.

I already read up on spoilers so if the show continues, this won't be a problem in the long run due to the wealth of characters and additional settings we'll be given. New faces will appear to mistrust, dislike, or underestimate Main so there will continue to be conflict for Main that makes things interesting. But episodes like this one really exposes how lazy that can be. They just don't have time for nuanced antagonistic characters. Thus we get development on more important characters but only have cardboard for villains.

[B E C K]

Bna was really good. It was nice to have a Trigger show that didn't throw itself face-first off a cliff at the end. Not that it didn't get kinda weird and feel sorta rushed near the end but being limited to 12 episodes probably helped.

[jonhammstein]

Good to know. It looks flashy as hell, but I fully expected it to be the newest victim of Trigger syndrome.

Summer batch of new anime looks REAL fuckin' dry: https://anichart.net/Summer-2020

Woof.

One of them did stand out to me, though: https://anilist.co/anime/110446/Gibiate

In 2030, Japan. A virus has infected humans throughout the world. Infected people turn into different forms of monsters based on their ages, sexes and races. The virus is named ‘Gibia’ - after being rich in variety like gibia. Just then, a pair of samurai and ninja appeared in such a blighted wasteland of Japan. They both travelled from the early Edo period, fighting together with help from a doctor who tries to find cure for Gibia. Facing ceaseless attacks from Gibias, and outlaws that attack travellers for food, they start the dangerous journey with enemies all around.

How can that premise possibly avoid being problematic?

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

This season is more than a bit threadbare ostensibly due to pandemic. There are a few this season that are interesting to me...mostly revisits like Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru  (I liked the first season but heard the 2nd ended on a significant cliffhanger, so I waited to watch it...didn't know it'd be several years removed from a resolution) and Enen no Shouboutai (which I didn't finish the previous season of but liked). Other than that, maybe a couple others, but I still have several to finish from the past two seasons.

[B E C K]

Good to know. It looks flashy as hell, but I fully expected it to be the newest victim of Trigger syndrome.

To me it hits that sweet spot of being flashy, weird but still entertaining. Similar to how Panty & Stocking did imo. (I know, not Trigger.)

I was curious on other opinions on this show and so far the first poor reviews I've seen wanted this show to be deeper in theme and world building than it was trying to be. There's a cult in the show and the reviewer wanted an exploration of religion. Like, fuck, no, dude. Just enjoy the animal people doing shit.

[jonhammstein]

Good to know. It looks flashy as hell, but I fully expected it to be the newest victim of Trigger syndrome.

To me it hits that sweet spot of being flashy, weird but still entertaining. Similar to how Panty & Stocking did imo. (I know, not Trigger.)

I mean, there's some shared DNA there at the very least, right? I was going to mention being disappointed with how P&S ended so abruptly, but that was probably a blessing. Better to be left wanting more.

[B E C K]

Bna builds up to it's ending better I'd say and there's no ridiculous cliffhanging "tune in next season" tease about it.

I also saw A Whisker Away on Netflix around when it first came out. Thought about posting that in movie thread but it's still anime. It was cute. 3 1/2 stars for the first half, 2 stars for the second. We get this great build up and then the end got sloppy. The biggest offender was the reveal of Taro's identity happening off-screen from a character who doesn't even count as a secondary character at that point. That part felt very cheap.