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Hidamari Sketch x 365-Episodes 1 and 2

Episode 1: Seeing all the girls meet for the first time was cute. Hell, the whole thing was cute! What can I say? Hidamari Sketch; good candidate for the best thing ever.
 
Banner of the Stars - Complete - really starting to love this series, very underrated. the relationship between the two MC's reminds me of Spice & Wolf for some reason.
 
The Heroic Legend of Arslan-Episodes 7-9

Episode 7: Can't say a lot really happened in this episode really. Farangis looks really cool, looking forward to seeing more of her, and Elam's fight scene was also pretty great, but barring that, it kind of felt like it was jogging in place a little.

Episode 8: Really interested what the reason for Kahlan's reason for betrayal was. I was hoping they'd reveal that in this episode considering he died, but I guess that will come later.

Episode 9: I was starting to wonder when that kid from Episode 1 was going to come back...

Berserk (2016)-Episode 1

A decent enough start, I suppose. The CGI is pretty good for the most part, there wasn't one part I could think of that stood out as particularly bad and during the action scenes, it actually looked great. I was also a pretty big fan of the soundtrack, especially the more metal elements, which I kind of wish they leaned into a little bit more than they did. It kind of bums me out the show is censored, although it was to be expected really, so I'll be interested to see Universal's (hopefully) uncensored blu ray release later on.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable-Episode 14

Rohan's stand ability is super cool, although it seems like it could be a little overpowered. I guess we'll see.

Hidamari Sketch x 365-Episode 3
 
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Berserk [2016] (Japanese audio) - Episode 1

Alright so the first episode did turn up at 3:30pm UK time just as planned.

As I've read the Black Swordsman arc, I can tell you that they did adapt some parts of it however the rest was pretty much skipped entirely to focus straight into the Conviction arc. A remixed version of Chapter 1 (i.e. the introduction of Puck) and the entirety of Chapter 2 was covered (the fight against the skeletons in the woods). The rest was skipped. Personally I was disappointed that they skipped this arc since it only needed a couple episodes but I guess since it was the beginning of the story and given I haven't read beyond the Black Swordsman arc they could have changed things here and there with the continuity after Golden Age. The animation was indeed a mixed bag. The 2D parts were pretty good and the 3D during the battle scene was awesome, as well as puck's comedic moments. The 3D does stall a fair bit on the close-ups and puck flying around at times. I did get used to it after a while though but those 3D parts will put some people off from seeing the series.

The opening song was awesome and it's a pretty good song as well. The ending song was calm but solid. The preview song is the epic Susumu Hirasawa Ash (Hai yo) song which is awesome, reminds me of how they used Forces for the Preview of the 97 series. I do applaud Shiro Sagisu for bringing back Blood & Guts (one of the best songs used in the Golden Age Trilogy OST) and having some cool background music for the fights, though it's still not as epic as Hirasawa's. The opening song does indeed spoil the latter part of the Golden Age, just saying.

So long story short:
+ OP/ED & OST is great
+ Fighting scene was good even in CG
+ Puck comedic faces
- Ignored the Black Swordsman arc completely
- The CG close-ups are horrid
- This episode mashed events that didn't take place

Additional notes:
Yes this anime is indeed censored but at least the Blu-ray version will show the violence to its full extent, like when the girl gets sliced in half by a block of iron from chapter 2. You can see what exactly happened but it's just faded for broadcast reasons. I wouldn't worry about the home release version. Heck it's possible Crunchyroll could offer the uncensored version later on given they have exclusive rights to the series.

Another note worth mentioning is the odd comparison with the 1997 anime. The first episode for both adaptations rushed the Black Swordsman arc to get straight into the main arc they are adapting so I guess it's not the end of the world.
 
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Berserk 2016 ep1: I'm a terrible person and I can't look past the emotionally-bereft CG art style. I'm sorry. I recognise that effort (and money) has been put into its creation but I hate it. I'll keep watching the show because my partner is obsessed with Berserk but I feel no emotional connection whatsoever to what I see on the screen. Thinking on it, I actually don't like the idea of paying money for this kind of animation because it doesn't trigger the same value call I make when spending my cash on anime. I'm certainly not going to import this.

Momokuri ep1: Didn't like this either. I think it rides on finding the lead cute and I didn't really care about her. Overall it's kind of sweet (assuming her craziness doesn't go up a few more notches) but not really something I'm going to be interested in following.

I think both debuts were damaged by the fact that they arrived on JoJo Friday, and as it was a particularly good episode of JoJo everything else seemed flat and weak in comparison. I also just finished the third episode of Gundam The Origin yesterday; it was phenomenal and contributed to my standards being raised. The (deliberately) old fashioned artwork in Origin makes such a strong contrast with the technically-accomplished-yet-empty facial expressions in Berserk.

Next up, a ReLIFE marathon.

R
 
crashmatt said:
Banner of the Stars - Complete - really starting to love this series, very underrated. the relationship between the two MC's reminds me of Spice & Wolf for some reason.
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They made several sequels to that, if I recall.
 
Diamond is Unbreakable ep14

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Berserk (2016) ep1

Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Would agree that the CG looked fine during the battle scenes, but I find the disconnect between the different art styles jarring - it's like there's one studio working on the fights, one doing CG for the non-fights, one doing the hand drawn elements, and none of them speak to each other. The music was okay, but I don't like the hard rock/metal vibe. Maybe it's because I rewatched the 97 series not so long ago, but I find it too much of a departure.

As an introductory episode, I guess it was okay, although even in spite of it going to some dark places, I don't think they've really caught the pervading sense of despair that hangs over the story (or used to). Also Chapter of the Lost Children has been dropped. Boo.
 
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Ushio to Tora 27 - 39(complete) - Finished the second season last night and my god is it good. It's a treat to see 90s shounen captured so well and given the treatment it deserves. I was a little worried at first when i heard such a long series was going to be just 39 episodes, but it does it superbly well. There is moments where you do notice some stuff missed, but in the grand scheme of things, it is fairly negligible. Honestly can't recommend this show enough if you're a fan of shounen, or even if you feel you lost some faith in shounen anime as of late. I think this show just brings out the best in the genre, and it deserves the praise it gets honestly.

Berserk 1 - I think many will echo the same thoughts, but this was actually pretty good all things considered. I went in not really sure if they could pull off the animation style, and i'm still not 100% sold on it, after the opening shows they can do traditional style gorgeously well, but there we go. In terms of the episode itself. Action was really good and the soundtrack is pretty crazy, working very well with the show. I'm so happy that the likes of "Blood and Guts" from the movies made it's way in there as well, since the movie OST was superb in itself. Hirasawas track for the preview feels like a nod to how it was in the original series as well, always great to see he's working on Berserk in some fashion, as it wouldn't be right without him.
In terms of the content though, i was a bit surprised to see them basically skip all of The Black Swordsman bar one chapter, then ignore all of 14-16(post advent) so they can get onto the conviction arc. I honestly hoped they would cover that period as it's a good sign of the tone for the show as well as showing how Guts became as he is now as well. My hope is that it will go back to that somewhere down the line for a few episodes as a flashback, but i'm not holding out much hope for now. Will see though. All in all, i was happy with it regardless. So bring on next weeks episode.
 
Arbalest said:
Berserk 1 - I think many will echo the same thoughts, but this was actually pretty good all things considered. I went in not really sure if they could pull off the animation style, and i'm still not 100% sold on it, after the opening shows they can do traditional style gorgeously well, but there we go. In terms of the episode itself. Action was really good and the soundtrack is pretty crazy, working very well with the show. I'm so happy that the likes of "Blood and Guts" from the movies made it's way in there as well, since the movie OST was superb in itself. Hirasawas track for the preview feels like a nod to how it was in the original series as well, always great to see he's working on Berserk in some fashion, as it wouldn't be right without him.
In terms of the content though, i was a bit surprised to see them basically skip all of The Black Swordsman bar one chapter, then ignore all of 14-16(post advent) so they can get onto the conviction arc. I honestly hoped they would cover that period as it's a good sign of the tone for the show as well as showing how Guts became as he is now as well. My hope is that it will go back to that somewhere down the line for a few episodes as a flashback, but i'm not holding out much hope for now. Will see though. All in all, i was happy with it regardless. So bring on next weeks episode.
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I think the Black Swordsman arc and Lost Children arc would work better as a separate season since it's essentially 5 volumes of content (2.5 per arc). I guess they're trying to cover the newer arcs to help bring more support for the manga even if its doing well already. Plus the most popular arc outside of Golden Age is the Millennium Falcon arc (the one that also got a PS2 game adaptation) so if Conviction does well, we could end up with a Season 2 to cover that.

I'm fine with Episode 1 for now, as long as the other 23 episodes are faithful to the source material. This is like the 97 anime, both rushed the first arc to get to the arc that they're adapting.
 
The Heroic Legend of Arslan-Episodes 10-13 (On Hold)

Episode 10: Another episode that I can't help but feel is padding, minus a pretty important scene at the end.

Episode 11: Well that was certainly an interesting revelation.

Episode 13: I'm glad Universal managed to find a pretty natural stopping point for the end of Part 1.

Love Live Sunshine-Episode 1

This was kind of weird to watch. It's like I stepped into a parallel dimension or something, everything was similar but different at the same time. Still, I felt it was just different enough to be its own thing and was quite enjoyable. I think it's far too early to pick a best girl yet, but I'm going to place my bets on either Ruby or Riko. Chika is an underdog.

Hidamari Sketch x 365-Episode 4

I knew it wouldn't happen since it didn't appear in later episodes, but I really wanted the cat to stick around :(
 
The Future Diary Episodes 1-4 Seems ok so far. Was hoping for something more similar in tone to say Death Note, but alas, it's not. Interesting premise though.
 
britguy said:
The Future Diary Episodes 1-4 Seems ok so far. Was hoping for something more similar in tone to say Death Note, but alas, it's not. Interesting premise though.
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Funnily enough i've just started a rewatch of this. I personally love it, but it's a very marmite series indeed.

yesterday I watched Saekano - Not as clever as it thinks it is, but the characters are oddly endearing despite usually being jerks. Eriri for the win of course. (Just my shipping opinion, others may of course differ.)

(as for giving a shipping opinion on Future Diary, I do have some, but sharing them until you've seen it all... i won't *smile*)
 
britguy said:
The Future Diary Episodes 1-4 Seems ok so far. Was hoping for something more similar in tone to say Death Note, but alas, it's not. Interesting premise though.
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Make sure you watch the redial OVA after the series. Its worth it
 
On Friday 1st July:
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable (Japanese audio) - Episode 14

On Saturday 2nd July:
Food Wars! The Second Plate (Japanese audio) - Episode 1
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (Japanese audio) - Episodes 10-12 (Complete)
 
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