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Girls wIth Guns said:
We then started Shakugan no Shana, and watched eps 1-5.
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It's been a long, long time since I've seen any of Shana, but my recollection is that it becomes a fairly standard fantasy/action show as it goes on. If you didn't like the start of it, you might get more out of it, but I thought the early part was the only thing that really stood out to me, to be honest. Marjorie Daw and her enchanted book were kind of entertaining, but everything else... bit ordinary.
 
Princess Mononoke (sub at the cinema)
Still great, but one thing I did realise being a captive audience is that it is on the long side, as I've only ever seen it off a recording on the Sky box or off a disc where you can pause it.

Killing Bites ep 11
Backstory for Pangolin! And Rabbit wins, which makes up for Juni Taisen! But then another twist.

Kokkoku ep 12 (complete)
Being turned into a baby has to be one of the oddest fates for the bad guy! Nice end, but overall the set up could have had a better story to go with it.
7/10

Citrus ep 12 (complete)
I liked the Mei being stern on the outside, but being fragile on the inside and Yuzu not being sure about how to go about their relationship, but I felt (what seemed like) the constant love rivals turning up got in the way of the good parts.
7/10

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens ep 11
The final battle is all set up.

Shows to finish:
Karakai Juozu no Takagi-san tomorrow
A Place Further Than the Universe Tuesday
After the Rain Thursday
Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens Friday
Killing Bites Friday
Violet Evergarden the following Thursday
Dagashi Kashi s2 dub so a few weeks yet
 
Magical Girl Ore ep 1 - 2 I wasn't too sure what to expect with this series, I did think I'd end up dropping it quite quickly but surprisingly I enjoyed it, I'm definitely going to keep watching it.
 
claymore (sub) 9 - ohohohoho yes! the first appearance of none other than helen! I don't think I have an MVP for this episode, except for helen sounding slightly deeper and her laughter a little more natural, the new cast, that being helen, deneve and miria, sound very similar to the dub, the claymore often are quiet with reserved "necessary" speech either way it seems, apart from special personality traits. Oh and read 'em subs, sis miria - from helen. yup, helen has a total onee-chan thing going on and I like it! my predictions for MVP next episode - probably the awakened one, as of course, there are only 4 others the cast of 10 and I've just seen them
sword gai 1-12 (first cour, I assume after the way it ended) - Imagine you put the witchblade anime and any fate\series together and had it written by the guys who did the ghost stories dub, then remove pretty much anything from what makes those other series special, and you get sword gai. barely involves the titular character whatsoever, here's how bad some of the writing is - a crippled guy wants to steal a legendary sword someone else won at auction, he gets his goons to try their luck against this someone else, but the goons have their butts handed to them. a fight involving one of the series antagonists breaks out, it ends in the auction winner pulling a disappearing act then realising the sword is gone... in that time only the crippled guy could have taken it, and he has, but he's crippled so how?
 
A Place Further Than the Universe (Japanese audio) - Episodes 9-12

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Girl Friend Beta episodes 9-12 (Complete. A fine if somewhat typical SoL that only really stands out due to how many characters it manages to juggle. A fine watch, but nothing special.) 3/5

Girls High episodes 1-3 (Dropped, couldn't get into the humour it was trying to convey. Maybe I'll watch it another time.)

Grave of the Fireflies (Film) (Rewatch) What makes this such an effective piece for me is how visceral it is. For instance, there's a lot of scenes without music, allowing the viewer little reprieve and forces one to focus on the tragedy unfolding onscreen.

Shots of the mother bandaged and burnt, the brother discovering that the sister knows what's happened to her etc are effective, and when music is used it's still subtle. This is a film will deserving of its reputation, and I appreciate its nuances more the second time around. 4/5

Gintama episodes 23-28
 
claymore (sub) 10 &11 - ok, so I'm really noticing the girls going beastly (or "using their yoma aura") sounds like it's done a lot more naturally than the dub, and Inoue's shonen "uwaaa" when miria is practically molested by the monster (miria onee-san! no!!) gets her her next paycheck I guess. but it seems I'd forgotten the two spectators: ermita and galatea, one of which does give me 2 MVP's for 10, cho's ermita and miyamoto's awakened being, with their powerful booming male voices that are certainly a deeper more powerful tone than any of the girls in both these episodes, particularly cho's ermita, who seems to have a bit of mystery hidden in his tone.
11 wasn't that special in terms of voices, apart from takeda's deneve, who in one scene uses all her power to regenerate, with the beastly voice I mentioned before sounding a little more natural then in the dub. one you don't get much of in 11 is emi's ophelia. I expect emi in the next arc to sound more typical of a typecast sadistic character, though I don't dislike the type of voices used on these characters, I don't know what to expect of minori's awakened being as I haven't heard it yet, they are 2 of 3 new characters in the next few episodes and the other doesn't say much, so my MVP of the next is between ophelia and the female awakened being, at least until about 14/15
 
New game! And new game!! 1-end
Had to take a break after the first few episodes of new game! Then was able to carry on with the rest. It was quite nice to see all the character interactions.
 
Karakai Juozu no Takagi-san ep 12 (complete)
Such a sweet final scene, not as far as I thought they would go. I thought maybe a first kiss. Fun enjoyable series, but only a slight character arc.
7/10

Dagashi Kashi s2 e9
Another amusing episode.
 
After the Rain ep 11. The (potential) romance has taken a backseat to the more personal drama of the main characters lives, which feels like a natural progression to me. Still my favourite anime this season.

ClassicaLoid s2 ep 25 (complete). The first season was very average, but during season two it finally 'got gud' and the characters became engaging rarther than annoying. I would love to have known who Hashie actually was, but I don't know classical composers well enough to work that out. I guess this is my biggest surprise of the season, if only because I didn't expect anything much from it going in.

Dagashi Kashi s2 ep 11. And this is my biggest disappointment of the season. It's not all that funny and I don't care about any of the characters, which makes it the complete opposite of the first season.

Laid-Back Camp ep 12 (complete). A nice chill-out anime, but it's no Non Non Biyori.

Ms Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles ep 12 (complete). I enjoyed this a lot, mainly because ramen is my favourite food. The characters and comedy were serviceable but nothing special, though yanderes are always fun to watch.

Space Dandy s1 ep 11. I still don't understand how I didn't like it when it first aired but now am loving it. Baby.

Violet Evergarden ep 11. This is now largely what I wanted it to be from the start, so I'm a happy viewer. There are still all kinds of questions marks floating around which are making it difficult for me to connect emotionally to Violet, but the storylines are sufficiently well done that I can overlook that on a week by week basis. I might not be so forgiving when rewatching from the eventual BD release however.
 
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