Verdict on Anime on Demand's shows so far

[Just Passing Through]

It's been a good few weeks since Anime on Demand started streaming to the UK, although circumstances have done their best to throw a few spanners in the works.

We still don't have Nichijou as yet, while Crunchy are way ahead on both this and on Stein's;Gate, and early on there was mention of Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro, but that seems to have been lost in the start up.

But we have four shows up and running. Have you seen them, and what do you think so far?

For me, Tiger and Bunny has been a solid if predictable performer. It's got a very neat idea, but the way it is executed, the story and the characters is very mainstream anime. It's definitely a fun watch.

The two surprises for me have been Stein's;Gate and Deadman Wonderland. Stein's;Gate is very smart, sassy, quirky and stylish. I find that it has something of a Durarara vibe to it, twisted narrative and outthere characters, a grungy low rent sci-fi which entertains through sheer force of energy. It's unpredictable, ironic, and has a Welcome to the NHK approach to otaku culture.

And Deadman Wonderland is wonderfully nasty. It's blood and guts nasty. It's Manga Entertainment nasty. No it's Manga Video nasty. A great premise, a cast of anti-heroes, psychopaths and pure villains, and no compromises to audience sensibility. I want this licenced and in my DVD collection as soon as.

The big disappointment for me has been C, which has quickly turned into Pokemon with Credit Cards. It's a great subject to make an anime about, especially now, and there are moments in it that really shine with intelligence and insight, but it's so depressingly predictable and lowest common denominator. It does for the financial system what Shangri-La did for climate change. Turn something meaningful into something completely generic.

 

[ilmaestro]

Hmm, I didn't catch up on [C] yet after enjoying the first couple of episodes, so perhaps my opinion will change once I do so, but the shows themselves have impressed me a lot, overall.

Steins;Gate has pretty much blown me away, love time travel shenanigans and the characters are very entertaining.

Deadman Wonderland is pretty low-effort fun, surprisingly do not like the central voice performance from Romi Park, but apart from that it's a nice diversion.

Tiger and Bunny has me laughing in spite of myself, and I like the interplay between the two leads, and between Kotetsu and both Karina and Agnes.

What I don't like was the promise of both catching up with S;G and starting Nichijou, only to be followed by silence when this hasn't happened.

The player itself works smoothly, but the quality of the 720p feeds is a little low. Also I have problems getting the 720p S;G eps to load at all for some reason. They also need more controls - mouse clicking anywhere on the screen should pause the video, for instance - and hovering the cursor over the progress bar should bring up a time-stamp for where you will skip to if you click it.

 

[Lupus]

[C] is a fun show and has some interesting ideas, I can see it getting stale but it won't last that long.

Deadman Wonderland is my guilty pleasure show and I literally feel guilty for liking a show like this. Aimed at fourteen year old kids easily impressed by a bunch of characters swearing constantly with gore and blood all over the place.

Tiger & Bunny is a solid show overall, nothing really outstanding but it's entertaing enough.

Haven't watched the rest.

 

[Joshawott]

I haven't watched Deadman Wonderland yet, and I've only seen the first episode of [C].

Tiger & Bunny is definitely a winner for me though. Although the more recent episodes haven't lived up to the hype it had when it began, it's still enjoyable nonetheless. I'd rather they had the episodes centering on individual heroes before the whole Ouroboros thing started - although the recent Dragon Kid episode was really good...I like Dragon Kid. But...the Engrish episode titles...

 

[Just Passing Through]

The first episode of Nichijou is finally up. They're promising one new episode a week every Monday. So much for the catch up.

If I like it, I'll do what I did with Deadman Wonderland, I'll switch to Crunchyroll.

 

[Zin5ki]

The first episode of Nichijou is finally up. They're promising one new episode a week every Monday. So much for the catch up.

But this is being streamed via "the other place"! Will there not be a risk of being left in the dust, as it were?