Rate the Last Anime You Watched Out of 10
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Dai
Combat Butler
Girlfriend, Girlfriend
I probably would have given up on this show after a few episodes if it hadn't been from the same author as Aho Girl. I kept hoping that GG would live up to that level of insane comedy, and while the style of humour is similar, it runs out of steam early on and never recovers. Aho Girl had a couple of things going for it that GG lacks. Its premise was broader, so the comedy took in the full scope of Yoshiko's idiotic antics, making each episode varied and unpredictable. GG is hamstrung by its singular focus on the fact that a guy is openly two-timing his girlfriends. The same gags are repeated over and over, and it quickly gets tedious. At the same time, it's trying to be an earnest romance series half the time, but that side of it is just a grab-bag of tired cliches. The other advantage Aho Girl has was its shorter episodes; this author's style of comedy is very rapid, and the full-length episodes of GG make everything feel slow and drawn out.
It doesn't help that the animation is sub-par. Art is generally on-model, but the sheet count is so low that it feels like a motion comic half the time. In the end, the story gives no compelling reason to keep watching past the first few episodes.
4/10
I probably would have given up on this show after a few episodes if it hadn't been from the same author as Aho Girl. I kept hoping that GG would live up to that level of insane comedy, and while the style of humour is similar, it runs out of steam early on and never recovers. Aho Girl had a couple of things going for it that GG lacks. Its premise was broader, so the comedy took in the full scope of Yoshiko's idiotic antics, making each episode varied and unpredictable. GG is hamstrung by its singular focus on the fact that a guy is openly two-timing his girlfriends. The same gags are repeated over and over, and it quickly gets tedious. At the same time, it's trying to be an earnest romance series half the time, but that side of it is just a grab-bag of tired cliches. The other advantage Aho Girl has was its shorter episodes; this author's style of comedy is very rapid, and the full-length episodes of GG make everything feel slow and drawn out.
It doesn't help that the animation is sub-par. Art is generally on-model, but the sheet count is so low that it feels like a motion comic half the time. In the end, the story gives no compelling reason to keep watching past the first few episodes.
4/10
D1tchd1gger
Himouto
ActionFaust
Mad Scientist
I think I dropped it halfway through and while I liked the humour (a surprise as I wasn't a fan of Aho Girl) I definitely think the premise could've been better. I would've preferred the show to actually be about polyamory instead of what was just a competition. Rather than competing for Naoya it would've been interesting to see the characters awkwardly trying to make the relationship work as polyamory is so rarely touched upon in media. Probably a bit too high of an expectation from a gag anime but eh it would've been nice.
I also agree on the episode length issue. Would've definitely solved some pacing issues by making episodes shorter.
Lordhippos
Death Scythe
So I finally got around to watching this tonight, and I agree, beautiful art, but for me the story was kind of vapid, and I found myself not really knowing what was going on, nor really caring to find out. The background art though, beautiful
Sadly looking good does not make a great film, so I can only give this a 5/10 really, the art was the main redeeming factor in an otherwise quite bland film.
The art kind of reminded me of Grimgar with it's painterly style.
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Geriatric hedgehog
Death Scythe
Agreed on this one. It was one I was tempted to re-watch and then did find the characters ultimately fairly likeable overall, and hence for me the romance angle did in general work and so subjectively would be more with Dai on scoring it nearer the 7/10 mark but objectively I think your score is more reflective, as you said, mainly on the basis of the visuals.
awadama
Railgun
Beyblade Burst
Excellent.
It's really just a sports anime. I watched a lot of while I was also watching Haikyuu (not literally at the exact same time) and they're pretty much the same thing (except one is about spinning tops and the other is about smacking a ball). It's about guys bonding over hot-blooded competition. There are disappointments, there are triumphs and there's a lot of training.
Unlike other Beyblade series (and these kind of shows in general - Bakugan and whatever else), there aren't any spirits, superpowers, shady organisations or anything like that. This is just 100% about the competition.
(In some of the important fights, an image of a warrior/dragon/demon appears for a few seconds, but that's just for dramatic effect - there are no actual monsters here)
The battles are exciting (considering it's just spinning tops smacking into one another) - they look great and the soundtrack is energetic and pretty intense. The characters are varied and interesting too. Valt is the lively main character you'd expect from this kind of series, but there's also a spooky guy, one who talks using hand puppets, a famous pop singer and a load more.
I found it pretty weird that the cast of character was almost completely male though. The only two female characters in the whole show (apart from randoms in crowd scenes) are Valt's mum and sister (and they don't do much). Shows like this always have a few girl characters (allies and enemies), so it was very unusual there were none here.
But anyway, I absolutely loved this from start to finish - 10/10
Excellent.
It's really just a sports anime. I watched a lot of while I was also watching Haikyuu (not literally at the exact same time) and they're pretty much the same thing (except one is about spinning tops and the other is about smacking a ball). It's about guys bonding over hot-blooded competition. There are disappointments, there are triumphs and there's a lot of training.
Unlike other Beyblade series (and these kind of shows in general - Bakugan and whatever else), there aren't any spirits, superpowers, shady organisations or anything like that. This is just 100% about the competition.
(In some of the important fights, an image of a warrior/dragon/demon appears for a few seconds, but that's just for dramatic effect - there are no actual monsters here)
The battles are exciting (considering it's just spinning tops smacking into one another) - they look great and the soundtrack is energetic and pretty intense. The characters are varied and interesting too. Valt is the lively main character you'd expect from this kind of series, but there's also a spooky guy, one who talks using hand puppets, a famous pop singer and a load more.
I found it pretty weird that the cast of character was almost completely male though. The only two female characters in the whole show (apart from randoms in crowd scenes) are Valt's mum and sister (and they don't do much). Shows like this always have a few girl characters (allies and enemies), so it was very unusual there were none here.
But anyway, I absolutely loved this from start to finish - 10/10
Lupin III: The First (2019)
A solid entry into the franchise, Lupin's first full CGI outing suffers with a slightly routine 'safe' story in the vein of what we've come to expect from the TV specials, although this is a little sharper than they generally come, and much elevated by its unexpectedly lavish visuals and entertaining set pieces. I'd happily take another one in the same fashion.
A solid entry into the franchise, Lupin's first full CGI outing suffers with a slightly routine 'safe' story in the vein of what we've come to expect from the TV specials, although this is a little sharper than they generally come, and much elevated by its unexpectedly lavish visuals and entertaining set pieces. I'd happily take another one in the same fashion.
Neil.T
Idolm@ster
It slightly baffled me why the Glasgow Film Theatre audience found the Hitler character and hoax photo so hilarious.
Must be a Generation Z thing.
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Yeah, I didn't get it either and my friend who was with me said the same thing. I was amused that they went there, but I didn't think it was that funny...
Pompo the Cinephile (2020)
A fresh and funny romp following a sleep-deprived PA who is thrust, kicking and screaming, into the limelight when his b-movie producer boss unexpectedly taps him to direct her latest script. Pompo runs close to the formula set out by Shirobako, with its much romanticised view of movie production, but approaches it with a gleefully anarchic energy and a strong visual style that give it a real personality all its own.
Indeed the use of colour and directorial trickery is so distinct that it almost feels like a Trigger film, even if it arguably becomes a little too full on at times. This does settle down somewhat as the film moves into its second half, but I feel the narrative also settles into something more conventional by this stage, with the characters' new film proving to be entirely serious and sincere compared to the nutty genre pictures hinted at in the early stages. The film is entertaining throughout and never lost my attention, but I did miss the sheer swagger that it displays during the first act.
On the whole, I think I would have preferred the film if they'd stuck with the b-movie aesthetic ("What if Shirobako, but Cannon Films?"), but when I say that, I'm talking about the difference between "I really liked this film" and "Contender for anime of the year". Would still very much recommend it.
Neil.T
Idolm@ster
I actually found myself briefly questioning at one point whether Pompo was a Trigger production, until I remembered the Clap logo at the start.
(Naming a studio that is surely asking for trouble. In the Japanese syllabary, the English word "clap" comes out as クラップ (kurappu), which could also be read as "crap".
)And yet Pompo was surely much more exciting than the Shirobako movie, which I personally found to be curiously flat.
(As a fan of the series, it pains me to call it that. Seriously, though, what was supposed to be the idea with the addition of musical numbers?)
ActionFaust
Mad Scientist
I haven't seen the film and I'm not too sure why this is being reasoned as generational humour but I think it's probably the whole concept of a CGI Hitler that's causing amusement. Pretty surreal image in my opinion.
Neil.T
Idolm@ster
That doesn't quite explain it, unfortunately. The audience's mirth began with a simple shot of a grainy black-and-white photo showing a man in a wheelchair who undeniably resembled Adolf Hitler.
Personally speaking, I found the idea of Hitler's escape (drawn from a real-life conspiracy theory) to be more chilling than funny, so I thought it was a shame that it got the reaction it did — almost as if the filmmakers had done wrong by depicting it in the story and that they weren't supposed to have gone there. It felt like ridicule to me.
ActionFaust
Mad Scientist
A lot of people react differently to conspiracy theories to be fair. Sounds like the kind of story where I'd be on the side laughing. Sure it's not on the same level of Hitler establishing secret bases in Antarctica to build UFOs but the Argentina theory still gets a chuckle out of me when I hear about it. Most of my experience with conspiracy theories comes from laughing at the History channel's Ancient Aliens series so I've rarely put any serious thought into this kind of stuff.
Dai
Combat Butler
Yuki Yuna is a Hero
I watched the original series again in preparation for season 3, and it still holds up well. Some shows looked at Madoka Magica's success and learnt all the wrong lessons, turning out grimdark murder-fests that feel like a mockery of the magical girl genre. While there's some clear post-Madoka influence to Yuki Yuna, it thankfully isn't that. Heart, drama, and tragedy have always been part of the genre, going back as far as Minky Momo and Sailor Moon (assuming you're not watching the censored US TV version of the latter), and Yuki Yuna feels as much in that vein as anything more recent.
There's a bit of a speed bump in getting into the show, however. The girls' smartphones are heavily integrated into the story, to the extent that there's literally an app to activate their transformations. Consequently it's easy to mistake the first episode for something more child-oriented like PreCure, but the story gets stronger as it goes along, being quite patient in playing its cards. It takes its time letting you get attached to the girls before really putting them through the wringer. The world-building is especially interesting, dropping in foreshadowing early on that pays off in epic fashion later. It all builds to an emotional and satisfying conclusion, which would have been a great ending even if the show hadn't continued.
8/10
I watched the original series again in preparation for season 3, and it still holds up well. Some shows looked at Madoka Magica's success and learnt all the wrong lessons, turning out grimdark murder-fests that feel like a mockery of the magical girl genre. While there's some clear post-Madoka influence to Yuki Yuna, it thankfully isn't that. Heart, drama, and tragedy have always been part of the genre, going back as far as Minky Momo and Sailor Moon (assuming you're not watching the censored US TV version of the latter), and Yuki Yuna feels as much in that vein as anything more recent.
There's a bit of a speed bump in getting into the show, however. The girls' smartphones are heavily integrated into the story, to the extent that there's literally an app to activate their transformations. Consequently it's easy to mistake the first episode for something more child-oriented like PreCure, but the story gets stronger as it goes along, being quite patient in playing its cards. It takes its time letting you get attached to the girls before really putting them through the wringer. The world-building is especially interesting, dropping in foreshadowing early on that pays off in epic fashion later. It all builds to an emotional and satisfying conclusion, which would have been a great ending even if the show hadn't continued.
8/10
Geriatric hedgehog
Death Scythe
ActionFaust
Mad Scientist
Sentai recently announced that they've licensed all three series so it's possible the second will show up on Hidive at some point.
Dai
Combat Butler
The series has had an awkward licensing history. Season 1 is on Crunchyroll. Season 2 was on Amazon Prime, but was removed earlier this year, and season 3 is exclusive to HiDive. While Sentai have licensed all three seasons, their press release was ambiguous on which rights they've acquired for the first two. I asked them about this on Facebook, but didn't receive a response. The first episode of season 3 is on HiDive now, but there's no sign of the first two seasons. It's possible that they might be for physical release only.
That said, having watched the start of season 3 (which was a great opening episode), I don't think it would be too jarring to jump from season 1 to 3, since half of season 2 was a prequel anyway.
ActionFaust
Mad Scientist
Yeah it is pretty odd that Sentai make no mention of streaming for the first two. For Season 1 I guess it's understandable considering it's on Crunchyroll but then again series like Cinderella Nine and Between the Sky and Sea started on CR before being licensed by Sentai and later showing up on Hidive. Same can be said for Amazon series like Magical Girl Site and After the Rain.
In short, licensing is never simple and makes no sense