Your anime viewing journal

Blue Reflection Ray episode 24 (Complete. My overall thoughts on this are mixed though I did stick with series to the end.) 3/5

The Dungeon of Black Company episode 12 Suited. (Complete. Another enjoyable comedy outing for the season.) 3.5/5

Lupin III: Part II episodes 80-100
 
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Star Wars Visions
Really enjoyed these. The only one I wasnt super into was TO-B1. Seeing how varied and yet amazing anime could be in this condensed format was really cool. Really hope they do more and that we can get longer epsiodes. I could watch this sort of Star Wars all day long!

Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun
Loved this. The art, the animation, the humour were all great. The dub was fantastic. Would've made a fun Halloween simulwatch actually.
 
How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom episode 13 Out on the town. (Complete. A fantasy series with an interesting premise which made a decent watch overall - I’ll be watching the second part when it comes out next year.) 3.5/5

Kajeki Shojo!! episode 13 Cast. (Complete. A solid drama which gave its characters time to develop, and I hope it’ll eventually get a second season.) 3.5/5

Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Season 2 - The Eve of Awakening episode 8 (Complete. Not quite the end of the story and I’m interested to see how it concludes.) 3.5/5

My Hero Academia Fifth Season episode 113 (Complete. I found the first half of the season to be less engaging than the latter villain-focused arc, though am looking forward to seeing how the next story arcs are handled.) 3.5/5

Remake Our Life! episode 12 Going back. (Complete. Time-travel series’ can be a mixed bag but I overall liked this anime for what it offered.) 3.5/5

The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! episode 8 Speech.

The Honor at Magic High School episode 13 Wings. (Complete. Though I did enjoy some elements of the series I personally didn’t find that it offered too much to the overall franchise.) 3/5

Lupin III: Part II episodes 101-124
 
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The Duke of Death and His Maid (Japanese audio) - Episodes 10-12 (Completed)
To Your Eternity (Japanese audio) - Episodes 13-20 (Completed)
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 2 (Japanese audio) - Episodes 14-21 (Completed)

With the exception of Higurashi SOTSU, I have finished watching the other 11 shows from the simulcast backlog. My overall ratings below:
  • The Duke of Death and His Maid - 7/10
  • The Dungeon of Black Company - 8/10
  • How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom - 8/10
  • I'm Standing on a Million Lives Season 2 - 5/10
  • Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid S - 8/10
  • My Hero Academia Season 5 - 6/10
  • My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! X - 7/10
  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 Part 2 - 7/10
  • To Your Eternity - 9/10
  • TSUKIMICHI -Moonlit Fantasy- - 8/10
  • Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 2 - 9/10
 
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations episode 217 Standing firm.

Fena: Pirate Princess episode 8 Promise.

Lupin III: Part II episodes 125-143
 
The Dungeon of Black Company ep 12 (complete)
Emergency plan.
A fun comedy poking fun at the Japanese work culture. Whilst very funny in places, the plot got a little confusing at times due to the subject matter it was riffing off and in general.
Art was pretty good with plenty of varied character designs.
7/10

Kageki Shoujo!! ep 13 (complete)
Moe!
The ending was a bit down beat compared to what it could have been. They'd just finished auditioning for a play and seeing that would have been great (maybe in an OVA), but it still felt somewhat satisfying with the whole class performing their first official duty for the troupe. For such a large cast you got to know a bit about a lot of them and they were all distinguishable, although I still struggle with names beyond the main 2, their look and characteristics were different (apart from the twins looks wise obviously) enough to make them stand out from one another. Talking of the 2 MCs you couldn't find more contrasting personalities if you tried, but they had a good chemistry and helped one another grow. The interactions with the various secondary and even tertiary characters we interesting as well.
The character art was really nice, loved the eyes especially Sarasa's when they got all starry. The backgrounds were serviceable, but apart from a couple of trips outside of the academy grounds there wasn't much to work with. The animation was pretty good too.
Hope for more in animated form, but in the meantime I've started collecting the manga.
9/10
 
My Hero Academia Season 5 (English Dub) Episode 23

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun 2nd Season (English Dub) Episode 39

EDENS ZERO Episode 24 Leaper.

Fena: Pirate Princess Episode 8 Oath.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 13 Gifts. (Complete. A fantasy series that has an intriguing premise which made for some pleasant viewing. I'll definitely be watching season 2 when it eventually airs next year.) 3.5/5

Love Live! Superstar!! Episode 9 Choosing a name.

Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica Side Story Season 2 - The Eve of Awakening Episode 8 (Complete. With the conclusion approaching, I’m curious to see how everything will be wrapped up.) 3.5/5

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 25 Next step. (Complete. This was a season of two half's with a weaker first and stronger latter but overall still just as enjoyable. I'll be looking forward to the next arc's in season 6.) 3.5/5

Remake Our Life! Episode 12 Return. (Complete. Another time-travel series that was also a mixed bag with what it brought to the table and presented. I personally enjoyed what I saw of it.) 3.5/5

The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! Episode 8 Presentational speech.
 
Remake Our Lives eps 11 & 12
Decisive and r-r-rewind.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending, he screwed everyone's life by accident, but they weren't to know and by going back he erased the existence of his cute little girl. Although I think Kagasegawa would be my pick as best girl rather than who he married in the future part of the story, so maybe not so bad (if that's who he ends up with). It also spoils the "be careful what you wish for" aspect as he gets another chance of correcting his initial over corrections.
Art and animation were pretty good, nothing too spectacular or bad.
7/10

The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated eps 7 & 8
Training montage and a new friend & Speach, bath and party.

Villainess s2 e12 (complete)
Graduation.
Definitely a drop from the first season. The main plot of the first got resolved, and this mostly felt like an afterthought. There was no plot apart from here's everyone living out their second year at the academy. There were mini plots within, but some were repeated, although they did introduce some new characters. And then right at the end they introduce a second game setting up new death flags to be avoided which seems like it should have been the second season, leaving this one feeling a bit like filler.
The art and animation weren't really the selling point of the first season and there wasn't much of a change here.
Gave the first an 8, but:
6/10

1m Lives s2 eps 11 & 12 (complete)
Big reveal!
I felt this season was an improvement on the first if only for some of the interesting plot points they introduced like the aging of the other world between missions and the question of whether they were actually the bad guys. Not much was actually done with these, but they were interesting nonetheless. The one thing I was really impressed with was the reveal at the end, I didn't see it coming, but it made sense once explained.
The art and animation, just like Villainess, didn't improve at all though.
Gave the first a 6/10, so:
7/10

Fena: Pirate Princess ep 7
Bringing out the big guns.
 
Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan episode 13 Wedding bells. (Complete. Though the premise did lend to some darkly humorous segments I didn’t find the series overly memorable, though maybe an eventual rewatch might help.) 3/5

Love Live! Superstar!! episode 9 Namesake.

Lupin III: Part II episodes 144-155 (Complete. I’ve finally finished the series and despite some repetition the stories were quite fun, and I didn’t know Seijun Suzuki supervised some of the series either.) 3.5/5
 
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A bunch of live-action movies on DVD:

The Red Shoes (1948) 10/10
Speed (1994) 8.5/10
Brick (2005) 9/10
Benny & Joon (1993) 8/10
Dolls (2002) 9/10
Cemetery Junction (2010) 8.5/10

Also tried and dropped

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (just found the opening scene too upsetting)
Dreamgirls (had a lot of potential but I think it needed a better script so I took it out of the player after probably a bit over half an hour of the film)
 
The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace episode 11 Capture. (Complete. A colourful and quirky series let down by the lack of conclusion or satisfying finale.) 3/5

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (Film) It’s been a long time since I first watched this and I found the 4K from Discotek to be great and the film itself is also a very fun Lupin outing from Hayao Miyazaki. 4/5

Lupin III: Part III episodes 1-4
 
Finished my Macross Delta rewatch. Still my favourite instalment in the franchise. I've come around to like the 2nd cour a bit more on this rewatch and episode 1 remains one of my favourite opening episodes to any series. Just a great introduction to the world, the characters and plenty of good Freyja faces. As for the music, they may not be Yoko Kanno but the trio of TOMISIRO, Saeko Suzuki and Mina Kubota still provided a great soundtrack accompanied with catchy insert songs by the in-universe idol group Walküre. Production was also just really great all round in compositing, character designs, CG and animation. It's good deculture.

Also watched Tiger & Bunny: The Beginning and it's certainly a Tiger & Bunny film based on the first few episodes. Aside from a new villain this really offered nothing interesting. There's barely any character development and the production doesn't look that much different to the series. I'm fairly sure a lot of scenes in the first half were just taken straight from the series anyway. Can understand why this was so often promoted as a stocking filler lol. Hopefully The Rising is more interesting.

Started Hello!! KINMOZA! from the backlog. Yet again more Manga Time Kirara wholesomeness

Love Live! Superstar!!8/--Seasonal
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes64/110Streaming Backlog
Release the Spyce7/12Streaming Backlog
Yona of the Dawn15/24Physical Backlog
Assassination Classroom5/22Physical Backlog
Your Lie in April5/22Physical Backlog
Hello!! KINMOZA!2/12Physical Backlog
 
More live-action films :)

Bull Durham (1988) 8/10 - Great baseball-themed sex comedy with real heat and romantic chemistry between the three leads, the opening minute or two seems to be trolling the audience a bit as it's just the sound of a gospel singer kinda humming/warming up to sing the national anthem at a game but once you get past that the rest is very enjoyable (I did think that maybe they were trying to encourage the audience to whet their appetites in anticipation and share the characters' frustrations, tbf to the movie) XD
Inception (2010) 10/10 - I saw this in the cinema when it came out, was a treat watching it again, I couldn't finish Batman Begins so never saw the rest of the Dark Knight trilogy but I love this film it's just so layered and compelling :)
About Time (2013) 9/10 - Excellent time travel rom-com, I've always enjoyed Richard Curtis' work more often than not, but I honestly think this is his best film, surpassing Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, I'd also recommend this if you like things like Steins;Gate as I felt it handled the philosophical and emotional issues associated with it in a similarly satisfying way, in spite of the lack of a science fiction element. It did also encourage me to reflect on my life and what it is to live, and I always appreciate films that give me a new perspective on that :)
 
Battle Game in 5 Seconds eps 11-12 (complete)
I've got the brains, you've got the brawn...
A battle royale show that started OK with an interesting calculating MC, but started getting worse from about the halfway point. It felt like the writer(s) were making stuff up as they went along. I mean that's what writers do, but there felt like no particular plan, like "damn we've written ourselves into a corner, how do we get out of it?" kinda way. And then the end was a mess with a sort of read the manga, but also see you in season 2 message. I don't think they will be a season 2 and I don't really care enough to bother reading the manga.
Art was pretty poor apart from some of the character designs. For some reason they went with cg for one character, but not the rest! Animation wasn't great either.
5/10

The Aquatope on White Sand eps 11-12
Typhoon and the end...
Half time report: It could easily end here, but there are 12 more episodes. As it was increasingly looking like the aquarium was going to close it started feeling a little stale as with one scheme after another failing it felt a bit repetitive, but these last two episodes were a bit better as the worst was confirmed and they started to look to the future. Like I said it could have ended here as it was a fairly satisfying, even though it would have been a somewhat open ending. I really don't know what they're going to do from here on though.
One thing I will say is that after initially seeming similar to Sakura Quest, outsider turns up to place in need of help, it hasn't been as fun as I remember that being, but still has been interesting for different reasons. Probably would be an 8 right now.

Fena: Pirate Princess ep 8
Healing.
 
D1tchd1gger said:
Art was pretty poor apart from some of the character designs. For some reason they went with cg for one character, but not the rest! Animation wasn't great either.
Click to expand...
Did this character have a particularly complex design compared to the others? It's often the case that some characters will be CG to put less strain on the production. Big examples would be characters wearing armour like Berserker from Fate/Zero or Goblin Slayer. With so much detail CG is the best solution in the current state of the industry.

And yeah I've heard that series ran into big scheduling issues towards the end. Signs of an industry that definitely needs more anime than they can handle /s
 
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