Your anime viewing journal

RadFemHedonist said:
I thought the old OVA was worth watching but I really loved Birdy Decode what did you think of that? One of my favourite shows (also the UK DVDs have such good authoring they almost look like Blu-rays) :)
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Must confess that I’ve actually not seen much of Decode (even though it is something I’d like to go back to). Birdy’s Shion persona was kind of grating and I did like her OVA character design more, but other than that it seemed pretty solid - I remember the animation being really good.
 
Professor Irony said:
Must confess that I’ve actually not seen much of Decode (even though it is something I’d like to go back to). Birdy’s Shion persona was kind of grating and I did like her OVA character design more, but other than that it seemed pretty solid - I remember the animation being really good.
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I don't remember there being much of Birdy as Shion in it, and I'd def recommend giving it another try - I keep hoping someone will license and release the manga in English, as if it's as good as the anime I'd no doubt love it :)
 
Pacific Rim: swear I've never seen this before, but it all seemed so familiar. I may have turned off due to the appalling Australian accents. I do love how they build these super giant robots with human interfaces, and the most popular weapon to attack the enemy? A fist. Seriously. I understand when it's two giant monsters, but a mecha surely should be a little more sophisticated than a bar brawler. Anyway, on to Appleseed Ex Machina now.
 
The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today ep 8
Vigilante.

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale s2 eps 10-12 (complete)
Fool's Mate and inside snow.
Anne seemed to have a bit more agency in getting out of her own scrapes this time, especially with the artisan side, but still became the damsel in distress in the second half. Still the lore behind most of the events this time were quite interesting.
A&A were the same.
A point up from the first season.
7/10

My Tiny Senpai eps 10-12 (complete)
Contest and time off.
An OK rom-com, although the romance side was just the two getting flustered thinking about it every time it got brought up and we didn't even get a confession at the end! The comedy had a bit of variation at least, be it a bit of innuendo, a bit of slapstick, a bit of misunderstanding and finding themselves in awkward situations, some of it was a bit ecchi too, but her disproportionately large chest always felt a little off.
Art and animation were OK.
6/10
 
After School Hanako-Kun episode 2 Use with care.

The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent Season 2 episode 15 Don’t stop the dance.

31 Days of Halloween 2023! Day XVII: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Film)

Gun X Sword episodes 8-16
 
The Duke of Death and His Maid Season 2 (English Dub) Episode 24 (Complete)

A Playthrough of a Certain Dude's VRMMO Life Episode 3

I'm In Love with the Villainess Episode 3

Shy Episode 3

The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy Episode 3

The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent Season 2 Episode 15
 
Arknights: Perish in Frost episode 2.
Spy x Family Season 2 episode 2.
Goblin Slayer Season 2 episode 2.
The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3 episode 1.
 
The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today ep 9
Cat sitting.

The Duke of Death and His Maid s2 eps 10-12 (complete)
Wizardry school.
We get a fair few revelations on the plot side of the story and thus less of the fun stuff from the first season, although what we do get of that is starting to feel a little repetitive. It definitely feels a little darker and thus suffers a little. From the hints we get it seems the big bad's motive is pure jealousy which isn't particularly compelling.
A&A are the same.
This one losses a point on the first season.
7/10

Blue Orchestra ep 20
Seems like there's a problem on the high seas! I'll have to suffer HiDive for their shows that I also used to sail for rather than use their terrible app/website, but this show still isn't available anywhere in the West as far as I know. I had just 5 episodes left!

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby - Road to the Top eps 1-4 (complete)
Triple Crown.
This short season followed 3 horse girls as they rival each of in the Triple Crown of races. It was very similar to season 2 in that it focus more on the dramatic side rather than the fun stuff from season 1 and I didn't particularly like any of them, not that 4 episodes is another to really get to know them.
A&A was very good again.
Loses yet another point from s2, so 2 less than s1. Hopefully s3 brings back some of the fun.
6/10
 
Appleseed Ex Machina: very derivative, with elements of Bubblegum Crisis and Ghost in the Shell, as well as a scene straight out of Aliens. I suppose it was entertaining enough for the casual watcher.

Flying Witch episodes 1-10: Delightful and surprisingly mundane tale of a witch in training. Not much magic, but lots of stories of life in a small town.
 
Nearly through all of the episode ones...

Tearmoon Empire ep1: A stuck-up princess gets a second chance to avoid a grisly end in this mash-up of the villainess and 'do-over' genres. It doesn't ever become greater than the sum of its parts (which doesn't reflect much greatness, honestly) but the animation and designs are pleasant enough and if you want to watch a snobby preteen being a bratty mess and then hastily regretting it each time she remembers what's going to happen to her, this show has you covered. If, like me, you were hoping for some decent politics and smart characters to flesh out the exaggeratedly regal setting, then it's probably best to look elsewhere. This is simple fare and it does what it sets out to do well enough.

The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch ep1: An old witch (who looks and acts like a nine year old) adopts a mysterious baby, who then grows up to be a teenager who looks like an adult but acts like a nine year old. The two women have a sisterly mother-daughter relationship but people keep mistaking the immature younger girl for the elder of the two, and since they're both fools there are plenty of misunderstandings, fluffy gags and boob jokes every time the two of them get together. The best characters were the two witchy friends of the lead who were generally terribly bad influences but in a harmless way, because this show is pure fluffy comedy and it knows it.

Migi & Dali ep1: This is definitely the weirdest premiere of the season so far. It's a pretty standard kind of horror setup - a childless wealthy couple adopt a boy who is actually a pair of identical twins (?) pretending to be a single child - but where it stands out is that everything the boys do is crazy. Not in the tired way that all of the school series of the last decade have featured normal boys sitting next to odd girls with 'crazy' habits, but actually, legitimately ludicrous. Nothing makes any sense at all but that's where it somehow actually works, because it's all so over-the-top ridiculous that it's closer to a low key horror-themed spin-off of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's more comedic arcs than a classic spooky story. I have no idea where it's going, nor whether there's any actual plot to make sense of the atmosphere, but I'm intrigued enough to keep watching.

R
 
Bullbuster episode 3 Looked down upon.

The Eminence in Shadow Season 2 episode 23 Believe.

Uma Musume: Pretty Derby Season 3 episode 3 Almost there.

31 Days of Halloween 2023! Day XVIII: ParaNorman (Film)

Gun X Sword episodes 17-24
 
Feherlofia/Son of the White Mare (English subbed, rewatch) - This is one of the most beautifully animated, mesmerising films I have ever seen and holds up very well to a repeat viewing, I also got more out of it having read a fair few books of fairy and folktales since I last watched it, it was interesting to see what elements are present that I have seen in other stories, it still feels fresh and original though :)

Hannah and Her Sisters - Definitely one of Woody Allen's best, I'm super glad I finally got around to watching this, loved the characters and their interactions was a bit like western slice of life even though it is also a drama and comedy, I liked how the
affair between Lee and Michael Caine's character was handled, it struck the right balance between acknowledging it wasn't a great idea but also getting you to empathise with both of them and see why they liked each other.

I'm currently rewatching Read Or Die TV and I do plan to finish Magic Knight Rayearth but I think I'm a bit too delicate for it rn emotionally 🥲
 
My Happy Marriage eps 10-12 (complete)
Revelation, awakening and connecting.
The first half was really good, but I felt that the second half, with more and more of the supernatural elements creeping in, lost a bit of what made it compelling. The supernatural stuff felt in equal parts really important to the plot (she was only treated the way she was because she wasn't "special"), but equally tacked on for some more action beats ("how are we going to separate them again?, I know dastardly villain unleashes hell and when they reconnect he'll die(?) quickly!"). There were still moments that were great though like the scene where she confronted herself in the dream world, which was superbly acted.
The art was very nice and the animation very good.
8/10

The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today ep 10
Work trip.

The Reign of the Seven Spellblades eps 12-15 (complete)
Under the influence.
There were some interesting bits to this, but also some flaws. The most interesting thing is the basic premise of Harry Potter, but much darker from the get go, but actually most of the rest are downers. The 6 mains become friends too quickly, but don't worry 3 aren't that useful in the grand scheme so let's focus on these 3 who, despite being first years, are super OP! It's made a point that it's really tough at the school and only older students who've survived that long can handle tough situations and then these 3 waltz in and do fine. Then one of them gets an abrupt plot reveal in a fairly early episode and then nothing much happens with this seemingly new direction for the rest of the season! Instead we get a few new classes and a few misadventures in the Labyrinth, a dangerous place on school grounds they're warned about, but they constantly enter anyway and then a final arc in which one of the weak 3 gets kidnapped, the second time this has happened and the strong 3 of the group jump in to help. It was an OK arc, especially as in the end they weren't the ones to win the day! It's sort of hinted at, at the very the end that this is the end of the beginning and we'll get back to that big reveal and that will actually be the plot going forward, if it gets more!
Art and animation were pretty good.
6/10
 
I'm now mostly at the point where I'm mopping up the shows which looked too annoying to watch when they actually aired, so it's probably all downhill from here. Thank goodness for the handful with late start dates!

The Kingdoms of Ruin ep1: Set in a land where witches were once treasured and are now actively persecuted, this series charts the story of an angry dude who used to travel with a pretty witch lady until she was brutally humiliated and slain right in front of him. I'll give it credit for actually having some stakes behind the revenge story which follows but it's so clumsily written - none of the baddies act even remotely like people - that the above-average designs and attempt at a plot can't make it watchable. The violence and bizarre sexualisation of the fridged witch who only exists as a plot device aside, the setting is also really, really distractingly weird. It's as though they took a bunch of different elements which the author liked and threw them all together in a chaotic blend of steampunk, high tech, post-apocalyptic, fantasy and prewar Germany. I just couldn't get my head around the nonsensical worldbuilding and even more nonsensical choices made by various characters. Oh, and there's also (female-only?) slavery, a very unpleasant okama stereotype and a clear fixation on women being sexually assaulted as motivation for the male lead. The point is that the main character hates it, I guess, but it's all so clumsy and juvenile that it kind of becomes what it's setting out to condemn. I'm out.

Heaven Official's Blessing s2 ep1: Probably the title I was most looking forward to starting this season, and while it was a late arrival it lived up to my expectations. The animation is even prettier than before and it follows on from the events of its predecessor smoothly, which means there's initially a change in pace (and less screen time for Hua Cheng - though Wind Master was a fun stand-in). I love how this series doesn't try to conform to the suffocating trends of copy-paste cynical, pandering isekai; the lead is a mature, good-hearted person and the his motivations feel real. While I won't deny that the cultivation genre has plenty of tropes of its own, Heaven Official's Blessing stands out for being a uniquely lovely dose of escapism and I'm looking forward to watching the rest. The Chinese animation industry has poured a lot of effort into giving this series a genuinely excellent adaptation, which honestly makes it a strange time to be alive.

R
 
The Eminence in Shadow 2nd Season (English Dub) Episode 23

The Misfit at Demon King Academy II (English Dub) Episode 22

I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness Episode 3
 
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