The Anime TV Thread

Eh, I'd say the main six are still toxic, it's just played solely for dark comedy.

mane six

The funny thing about watching the new Kino's Journey is I haven't seen the original in close to a decade, and then sudden vague memories hit me, like when Kino's gun practice, something I recall just so - only differently lit, and with a different colour on the gun, and so on. (And I'm pretty sure the story used in the opening episode was also adapted in the first anime show.)

Anyway in the world of Netflix releasing stuff later as they always do, there's ID-0, directed by Goro Taniguchi. He's made one of my all-time favourite anime (Planetes) and some other stuff that's pretty good,
like Infinite Ryvius, which was one of the really solid late 90s/early 00s space shows I quite liked back in the day.



(Alright, he's probably best known for Code Geass.)

Anyway this show was a reunion with the Ryvius writer Yosuke Kuroda and while it didn't feel like that much of a throwback to Ryvius, it did have a pretty solid science fiction premise... that could have really used Infinite Ryvius' 26 episodes to develop.

There's a fair bit to like about this show, and its CGI is up to Kado: The Animation standards of 'I forget it's CGI', but it's throwing a fully baked concept at you and never really slows down to set up what normal is before things hit the fan, and some revelations or character backstories that feel like they could have an episode detailing them are rattled off in a few sentences over the run. Still it's a fun little mecha show with some clever spins on familiar mecha concepts, and one aspect of the premise - that people send their consciousness into these mecha, not pilot them physically - allows for some nice SF meditations on Identity and what all that means.

After watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica on Netflix I rate it           /         

A Little Sister's All You Need reminds me a fair bit of Oreimo (a.k.a. My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute) in that watching it reveals unexpected depths that are not captured by a mere plot synopsis or trailer. The bare facts are as follows: this comedy tells the story of a 20 year old light novel writer with a strong and irrational sexual fetish for little sister characters. He - thank god - does not have a little sister, but a teenaged step-brother, a very small handful of friends, and an editor who rides his ass about meeting his deadlines.

Unlike Oreimo, the show does not even offer an incoherent defense of the protagonist's turn-on. Every single character tells him that his fetish is disgusting. Despite that, they still associate with him anyway. I suppose he's decent enough when he's not loudly bemoaning not having a little sister to have sex with, plus of his three friends, one is a fellow light novelist who's envious of his talent, another is also a light novelist with the same publisher who is an extreme fan of his work (enough that she's very frank about wanting to sleep with him), and the last is a former university classmate who probably has a buried thing for him from days gone by. Which is to say that there are plausible reasons for this group of people to be hanging out and this setting is not an aggressively stupid harem anime setup.

Anyway, it's hard to articulate what this show is and even harder to say what about it appeals to me. I had assumed it was just the latest nadir the anime industry had sunk to (a show about a guy who writes creepy stories about having incestuous sex with younger sisters), but there's something there beyond the occasional chuckle the show gets out of me. There's an undercurrent of unrequited longing, not necessarily sexual, that runs through the relationships between this circle of friends. Each of them wants something that they can't have, and I'm hopeful that the show can continue playing out the trial of Tantalus in the context of Japanese twentysomethings going through life feeling that there's just one thing missing and everything would be better if they just had what was lacking.

This is what I hope the show will be about, but I don't actually know if that's what the show will be focusing on as there was only two episodes up when I watched last night. In fact, I'm still not even sure what the show's really about. What does it want to say, beyond that it wants to show what happens in the lives of this group of people? I have no idea.

So this is not a ringing endorsement of the show, but a qualified FYI. I think there could be something there and I hope I'll be proven right.

EDIT:

This one commenter on Crunchyroll has a pretty good description of the show and also shares my own small hope for its future: "[T]his is such an odd pairing of trash otaku bait and actual character pathos. I'm guessing all the tropes are a deliberate mask to cover for each characters' inability to deal with their emotional history."

As someone who also loved the original, really enjoying the new one too (though it is a fresh adaptation of the novel series, so some of the episodes will overlap with the old show.)

Gundam Age is getting a US home video release in 2018. That means that all the main series of Gundam will have had a release in the US at one point or another. And all but Gundam 00 will be in rotation by the end of 2018, since G Gundam and the two Seed series will be put out in 2018. I'm sure Gundam 00 will get a reprint announcement soon enough though.

Outside of the main series it will just be Gundam Unicorn needing a rerelease, SD Gundam, and the parodies.

This show knows how to give its weird otherworldly characters proper introductions.

Well shoot, guess I need to watch Wolf's Rain now.

While not much up on my Batman, I declare that this looks pretty cool.

It's that time again, and a new season of anime bullshit is coming our way. This past season was a damn near embarrassment of riches both in terms of the expected (Kekkai Sensen, Magus, Garo) and wild cards (MMO Junky, Konohana, Anime-Gataris) among a number of others that all ended up being memorable. This coming season will probably be a return to the standard equilibrium of seasonal quality, but there's some promising stuff on the docket and some of last season's strong outings (Magus, Garo) still have their second halves to play out. We'll also be getting the extremely late Netflix arrival of Kakegurui. As always, some stuff that looks generic will probably end up being great and some flashier shows will end up just O-K.

Do you like KyoAni but bore of earnest high school girls chasing their dreams? Well they're going a different route with Violet Evergarden, which is probably going to be the season's standout show. A fantasy-drama about an earnest young war veteran lady robot finding her way post-war by putting the experiences of others into written form. It looks, characteristically, pretty great aesthetically. Paying your animators living wages pays off! Who knew.



Trigger and A-1 collaborating on a mecha anime, named with classic anime incoherence as Darling in the FranXX. It's definitely got the Trigger look, we'll see if the plot and action also match the energy of their best stuff.



Citrus is one of the more successful recent Yuri manga with a fairly large fan base, and is getting its turn at an adaptation this season. Prepare for all melodrama that comes with Forbidden Love! at a straight laced girls school.



Record of Grancrest War is here for all your probably overwrought strategic war fantasy bullshit needs. Shitty nobles are using the power of the netherworld to oppress the common people, so do our heroes set out to end their tyrannical ways.



Pop Team Epic is a very strange comedy manga. Here is its preview in which mascot versions of the characters kidnap a Russian otaku.



A kidnapping in the family unearths long forgotten powers in Kokkoku, spiritual tomfoolery ensues.



Robots aren't people, unless they are, and especially if they are cute anime girls, in Moe Runner 2049  Beatless.



Japan has become a crime infested dystopia. Killers are on the loose, but stylish detectives are here to unearth the truth and also enjoy ramen in Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens.



Do you have a thing for older gentlemen? Well, if so, here's the romance anime for you in Koi wa Ameagari no You ni.



Yuru Camp. It's a low key comedy about camping, there will be big coats and everything will be very cozy.



Sora Yori mo Tooi Basho. Girls doing antarctic scientific research things.



There's still a bunch of other stuff but I'm too lazy to list more, plus shorts, that could be good, or maybe bad! Only time will tell.

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Devilman is definitely not going to be for everyone, as is the case with its source material, but nevertheless it's superbly executed and only 10 episodes so it certainly is worth seeking out. Adapting something like this properly could definitely be a minefield for less talented hands but Yuasa and his compatriots do great work here in translating both the story's pulpy embrace of violence and its sweeping vision and larger-than-life tragedy into a coherent journey, and it is quite the journey.

Wasn't sure what to expect from a Pop Team Epic, wasn't sure if I expected that, and still not sure what to expect. A lot of the choices they made genuinely caught me off guard and I'm not sure if I can say I liked it. I'll stick with it, though.

Devilman Crybaby: Kinda sucks that 2018 in anime is all down hill from here.