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The Witch and the Beast ep5

The resolution of the previously promising setup is just kind of fine, but I did get a laugh out of them using the famous carpet pattern from the Overlook Hotel in one scene. Shame they didn’t model the villain on Jack Nicholson. I’m also curious how the anime compares with its source manga; it‘s not something I’m usually conscious of, but there have definitely been a few moments when I’ve wondered if plot details were cut for length or to make things more suitable for TV broadcast.

Metallic Rouge ep6

This is probably the most entertaining the show has been so far (the resolution to the murder mystery was genuinely hilarious) although it’s also the episode which is least like the others, so whether this is a sign of things to come, I’m not so sure. Overall, Metallic Rouge has been a strange collection of disparate elements and I think my patience for it is wearing thin.
 
The Ancient Magus Bride episodes 6-13 (and Twitter Q&A extra): Chise's training progresses, even if it does seem to be more instinctive than instruction. The visuals are beautiful and the music is rich and evocative. I also love how they get a look of wistful sadness on a deer (?) skull.
 
Farming Life in Another World complete series: Yet another Isekai where the protagonist is given a change at a new life as a reward for the sh!tty life he had to endure. All very cute, with the usual scenario of a man collecting a harem of beautiful buxom young monster girls while building a thriving village in the middle of a forest. Once again, it has a large component of the awesomeness of food from Japan. I must admit, some of these look like very appealing afterlives. I include a pic of the elven girls planting rice, just because.
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El Hazard: The Magnificent World OVA Series 1 (REWATCH, English dubbed) - Actually pretty fun to revisit, with an incredibly lush Blu-ray transfer that really brings out the popping colours and impressive animation. The fanservice episode earns points for having at least some nipples in it XP Jinnai's maniacal laugh is quite something! Now onto OVA series 2 which is also included in this set :)

Almost at the end of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu S1 (English subbed), and watching Delicious in Dungeon (English dubbed) with a friend atm - it's vastly better than I would have expected, a lively, entertaining and unique slice of life/cooking/adventuring isekai :)
 
RonJB said:
Farming Life in Another World complete series: Yet another Isekai where the protagonist is given a change at a new life as a reward for the sh!tty life he had to endure. All very cute, with the usual scenario of a man collecting a harem of beautiful buxom young monster girls while building a thriving village in the middle of a forest. Once again, it has a large component of the awesomeness of food from Japan. I must admit, some of these look like very appealing afterlives. I include a pic of the elven girls planting rice, just because.
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Thanks for the information. I'm more interested now.
Shouldn't have stopped checking it out after seeing farming in the title.
 
The Dragon Dentist

So I finally got around to watching this and honestly it is not very good, sure the setting is ok enough but the characters are basically plot machines whose sole purpose is to move the flimsy plot along, the protagonist seemingly can’t do any wrong in the eyes of the story and the villain’s figurative moustache is so twirly that if he had a literal moustache you’d think you were watching an adaptation of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, though to be fair that would most likely be far more interesting than this; I guess you could say, avoid Dragon Dentist like the plaque.
 
Aeon said:
The Dragon Dentist

So I finally got around to watching this and honestly it is not very good, sure the setting is ok enough but the characters are basically plot machines whose sole purpose is to move the flimsy plot along, the protagonist seemingly can’t do any wrong in the eyes of the story and the villain’s figurative moustache is so twirly that if he had a literal moustache you’d think you were watching an adaptation of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, though to be fair that would most likely be far more interesting than this; I guess you could say, avoid Dragon Dentist like the plaque.
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I am curious about this but more put off by how violent I've heard it is than anything else, also curious what you thought of the animation as I've heard that's very good at least? :)
 
RadFemHedonist said:
I am curious about this but more put off by how violent I've heard it is than anything else, also curious what you thought of the animation as I've heard that's very good at least? :)
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The animation’s fine but I can say that for any competently animated anime, it’s just one of those things where, because good animation is not uncommon in anime, it’s rare for it to impress me, the only exceptions I can think of in anime are Redline and One Piece Film Z, generally though I think that good characters are at least as important as animation if not more so, the former of which Dragon Dentist is lacking.
 
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Aeon said:
The animation’s fine but I can say that for any competently animated anime, it’s just one of those things where, because good animation is not uncommon in anime, it’s rare for it to impress me, the only exceptions I can think of in anime are Redline and One Piece Film Z, generally though I think that good characters are at least as important as animation if not more so, the former of which Dragon Dentist is lacking.
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Fair, thanks for answering :) I have not seen One Piece Film Z but loved Redline, I saw that one in the cinema really late at night and it's good that it was so loud and bright cuz that helped keep me awake haha! :) There are quite a few other anime that have stood out to me for their animation but I guess that kinda proves your point, that competently animated anime is not super rare. I became an anime fan in the mid 00s though (at the age of about 15-16 - I'm now 35!), when digital cel-style animation was still having noticeable teething problems, so while even then I was happy to watch older shows from the 90s and before as well as stuff that was new at the time, it was a bit more of a thing to write/email home about, when a recent production had high end animation as well as good design, and I'm still a touch nostalgic for all those really neat economic bubble era OVA productions, though I think new anime has plenty of good to offer too. I'm rambling a bit but my point is I'm interested in what an OVA can be these days as I know some newer/younger fans who think it's another way of saying bonus episode because in their experience that's mostly what OVAs (or rather OADs/OABs or w/e they call them now to match the type of disc they're distributed on) actually are these days.) One could validly argue that now some of the shorter anime TV series are kind of like OVAs or that these things are partly the premium anime that you sometimes get on online streaming services. IDK, I'm an autistic nerd with ADHD and anime is one of my SIs and I love to ponder such things :)
 
RonJB said:
Farming Life in Another World complete series: Yet another Isekai where the protagonist is given a change at a new life as a reward for the sh!tty life he had to endure. All very cute, with the usual scenario of a man collecting a harem of beautiful buxom young monster girls while building a thriving village in the middle of a forest. Once again, it has a large component of the awesomeness of food from Japan. I must admit, some of these look like very appealing afterlives. I include a pic of the elven girls planting rice, just because.
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Because... you're into mud wrestling? 😁

I did really like Farming Life in Another World, and yes, he builds up quite the extreme harem - which is a good thing! I will definitely be picking up the Sentai Blu-ray for this Isekai.
 
mid season roundup
Frieren & Apothecary still producing banger after banger episodes. for some reason I'm obsessed with Laufen's haircut.
Hokkaido Gals has cute girls but not much else. MC is a boring wimp. did I say that the girls are cute? they really are tho.
Metallic Rouge feels like a throwback to late 90s "cool" anime, not a lot of explanation of what's going on but it looks nice.

Fire Hunter 1-8
came across this randomly on CR, 16 episodes which is unusual. love the way it looks, interesting worldbuilding and characters. starting to get the feeling that it has maybe bitten off more than it can chew though, and the story has had quite a few "characters coincidentally in the same place at the same time to move the plot along" moments already. hmmm hope it can pull through.

Trinity Seven 1-6
ahhhh now this is the kind of nonsense that only anime can provide. school setting? check. daft magical system? check. dumb ecchi moments? check check check. some top quality garbage.
 
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El Hazard: The Magnificent World OVA Series 2 (English dubbed) - Hadn't seen this one before unlike the first OVA series, and I agree with the general consensus that it's not as good as that one, yet I still found it pleasantly entertaining "on in the background" fare :)

zappi said:
the story has had quite a few "characters coincidentally in the same place at the same time to move the plot along" moments already.
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You're making me think of one of my favourite anime Real Girl, which cleverly utilises those narrative contrivances so that we get the story of a relationship, rather than just up to when feelings are confessed! But I get that depending on the series it sometimes doesn't work so well :)
 
Bio-Booster Armor Guyver - Episodes 7 - 8

Bang Brave Bang Bravern - Episode 6

Golden Warrior Gold Lightan - Episodes 44 & 45

Cream Lemon - Episodes 13 - 18

Completed another tranche of this as there were certain episodes I wanted to see as part of my background research into Project A-Ko.

RadFemHedonist said:
Fairs - I'm not much of a vintage mecha person or big into mecha generally, though I do love SDF Macross - I really enjoy some mecha anime, and I love a considerable number of vintage anime but most of what the vintage anime fans describe as "fun series" in this regard (mech stuff) I don't get along with. To each their own :)
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Absolutely and tbh, by and large Goshogun is an average series and if mecha isn't a genre that you're really into I can completely see why it wouldn't appeal to a lot of people.

RonJB said:
Captain Earth episodes 1-2: gave up on this. Not really my scene and too reminiscent of so many other better shows. Is the earth really being invaded by two people based on the moon? I just don't care enough to find out. From the MVM Christmas mystery bundle, so only a £2 loss.
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I actually quite enjoyed Captain Earth and while I'll admit the story was a bit messy in places, it had some cool mecha designs and action scenes.
 
Orgun said:
Absolutely and tbh, by and large Goshogun is an average series and if mecha isn't a genre that you're really into I can completely see why it wouldn't appeal to a lot of people.
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I was partly sad it wasn't more like the manga From Eroica With Love by Yasuko Aoike as there's a slight vibe of that in some of these vintage shows (I mean like that fun adventuring flamboyant humor I guess?) That's obviously a me thing though! I could see why someone would watch it but yeah I wasn't particularly enthralled :)
 
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Climax (season 3): Finally we have a resolution to the romance between the three teenage introverts. Most of the series revolved round holding an end-of-year prom for the students graduating, so lots of room for tension and crossed wires. It was an enjoyable journey, although their lack of communication was frustrating at times.
 
The Cockpit - a three-part OVA I watched on VHS, having been sent it by Otaku News who was clearing space by getting rid of some old tapes. Released with Japanese dub with English subtitles.

For those unaware of it, this is a early 1990s series adapted from a manga by Leiji Matsumoto, but instead of his normal space operas, these are all Second World War stories. The first, “Slipstream” is about a German pilot tasked with carrying a Nazi nuclear bomb; the second, “Sonic Boom Squadron” is about a kamikaze pilot; and the third, “Knight of the Iron Dragon”, focuses on two Japanese soldiers riding a motorbike and sidecar tracking the last artillery group in the Philippines.

The tape, especially the first episode, was not in the best condition but the whole thing was watchable. There is an argument that these stories glamorise the Axis forces somewhat, but personally speaking the bit that offended me the most was a moment in the second episode where a character jokes using a deeply homophobic slur. I assume that it would be accurate for the time the story is set, but it still ticked me off a bit. However, the storytelling is decent, especially focused on the tragedy of war, with the notions that these soldiers will have to face ever greater destruction as the war draws to its conclusion.
 
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