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Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines ep1-2
Quite how much of an appetite I have for yet another high-school rom-com at this stage in the game remains to be seen, but this is certainly making all the right noises and good lord, is it ever well animated. It’s not as outlandish, but I feel A-1 are channeling classic Gainax productions like His and Her Circumstances and FLCL here. I just hope the visuals aren’t writing cheques the story can’t cash.
Quite how much of an appetite I have for yet another high-school rom-com at this stage in the game remains to be seen, but this is certainly making all the right noises and good lord, is it ever well animated. It’s not as outlandish, but I feel A-1 are channeling classic Gainax productions like His and Her Circumstances and FLCL here. I just hope the visuals aren’t writing cheques the story can’t cash.
adamclark83
Student Council President
Last night's viewing:
On DVD:
- Sailor Moon S Episode 1 (original dub)
On Blu-ray:
- Sailor Moon Episodes 15-19.
On DVD:
- Sailor Moon S Episode 1 (original dub)
On Blu-ray:
- Sailor Moon Episodes 15-19.
D1tchd1gger
Shrine Maiden
Delicious in Dungeon (dub) eps 13-15
Yep, wasn't going to be that easy! Plenty of lore in these episodes.
Yep, wasn't going to be that easy! Plenty of lore in these episodes.
I was genuinely very pleased with it; school romantic comedies usually make me run for the hills but Makeine is self aware and (surprisingly) insightful at times. Hope that you continue to enjoy it!
R
Dragon Slayer
The Wildcard
2.5 Dimensional Seduction Episode 13
Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything with Low-Level Spells Episode 12 Meeting the Witch. (Complete. A fine series thought my only gripe about this was the constant swapping between CGI and 2D animation.) 3/5
Loner Life in Another World Episode 1
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3 Episode 72 Speculation. (Complete...for now. Another enjoyable season as a whole and with the newly announced 4th season and 2nd film coming, I'll definitely be looking forward to watching them both.) 4/5
Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything with Low-Level Spells Episode 12 Meeting the Witch. (Complete. A fine series thought my only gripe about this was the constant swapping between CGI and 2D animation.) 3/5
Loner Life in Another World Episode 1
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3 Episode 72 Speculation. (Complete...for now. Another enjoyable season as a whole and with the newly announced 4th season and 2nd film coming, I'll definitely be looking forward to watching them both.) 4/5
Gemsy-chan
Shrine Maiden
Ep 24 of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime season 3 [complete]
Dungeon People episode 12 Replenish. (Complete. This was fairly easygoing but sits as one of the more middling watches of the season.) 3/5
Quality Assurance in Another World episode 13 Clipping. (Complete. An interesting premise but not the strongest execution. I found this to be a bit mixed overall.) 3/5
That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime Season 3 episode 72 Indirect guidance. (Complete. A very enjoyable third season - I dig the world building and how the ensemble cast continue to work within the narrative. Bring on season four.) 4/5
Touch episodes 71-77, 80-96
Quality Assurance in Another World episode 13 Clipping. (Complete. An interesting premise but not the strongest execution. I found this to be a bit mixed overall.) 3/5
That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime Season 3 episode 72 Indirect guidance. (Complete. A very enjoyable third season - I dig the world building and how the ensemble cast continue to work within the narrative. Bring on season four.) 4/5
Touch episodes 71-77, 80-96
adamclark83
Student Council President
Last night on Blu-ray:
- Sailor Moon Episodes 20-24
(These Blu-ray viewings of Sailor Moon are my first time viewing the new dub on Blu-ray)
Rewatched:
- Sailor Moon Episodes 20-24
(These Blu-ray viewings of Sailor Moon are my first time viewing the new dub on Blu-ray)
Rewatched:
- Konosuba: Season 2 Episode 2
- Konosuba: Season 1 OVA
D1tchd1gger
Shrine Maiden
Delicious in Dungeon (dub) eps 16-18
Finding a way, harping on and going deeper.
Finding a way, harping on and going deeper.
ayase
State Alchemist
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai: Complete (rewatch... kind of)
"I don't have time to teach you how to operate a Kalashnikov" Edition
Okay, so my memory isn't totally shot. I remember Hanyū (she of best character song and horns everyone is remarkably nonplussed by) and I remember that banging OP, which while not as creepy as the first is more of a hype song for the impending fight against fate, a feeling it evokes admirably (also that change at the end from episode 14 on is masterful in how for the first half of the show Rika appears to be knowingly breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging the audience, only for it to be revealed she could see something we couldn't, but now can, that being Hanyū, which is just brilliant on multiple levels). However I did fail to remember much of anything else (other than vaguely the Satoshi storyline) which made for a nice surprise.
Compared to the first series, Kai does feel a lot like "The Rika Furude Show" but that's in no way a bad thing since it's entirely necessary to see things from her point of view in order to get a grip on what the hell is actually going on. Plus all the other main characters kind of got their own arcs already. While it's a little disappointing that the horror takes a backseat this time around as the show becomes a more concerned with unravelling the mysteries of the first series, in doing so it basically turns into a better X-Files storyline than most of the later seasons of the X-Files. And everything does make sense by the end, I think. Not sure about the epilogue, it seems like the now time travel capable Rika encourages Takano to get on the same bus with her parents that they die on, and the driver still has a heart attack and crashes the bus just the same, but they all inexplicably survive. Wut? Was Rika trying to save her or kill her? I guess by Higurashi logic changes in the timeline can and do happen for seemingly no reason at all (like how sometimes Shion is in Hinamizawa and sometimes she isn't) but unless I'm missing something here surely showing them not getting on the bus would have made more sense? Perhaps all will be revealed in a later instalment I haven't gotten around to yet, or perhaps not. Speaking of Takano, I think she's a great example of how to write a tragic villain properly. She has understandable reasons for being the way she is, but she isn't reduced to being someone you're supposed to forgive for all her (pretty terrible) sins out of sympathy.
I also noticed this time that there's quite a pleasing anti-establishment streak to Higurashi. The town's fight against the government to stop a dam from wiping them off the map, the gang fighting the useless bureaucracy of social services to help Satoko or Ōishi and the other good cops risking their lives and careers to do what's right rather than just keeping their heads down; the idea of "Tokyo" (both figuratively and literally, it feels heavily implied) attempting to impose their will on the rural inhabitants of Hinamizawa and play games with their lives, yet finding themselves being fought at each turn by kids, cops, doctors, local kami and even yakuza granny, the spirit of people coming together to take on the man (and when they do they can win) seems to run right through the show. It's true it doesn't shy away from some of the less pleasant aspects of small town life (the Hōjō family's ostracization particularly) but it's hard after all this not to fall at least a bit in love with the people of Hinamizawa and the rural idyll they will come together to defend, bloodstained curses and all.
"I don't have time to teach you how to operate a Kalashnikov" Edition
Okay, so my memory isn't totally shot. I remember Hanyū (she of best character song and horns everyone is remarkably nonplussed by) and I remember that banging OP, which while not as creepy as the first is more of a hype song for the impending fight against fate, a feeling it evokes admirably (also that change at the end from episode 14 on is masterful in how for the first half of the show Rika appears to be knowingly breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging the audience, only for it to be revealed she could see something we couldn't, but now can, that being Hanyū, which is just brilliant on multiple levels). However I did fail to remember much of anything else (other than vaguely the Satoshi storyline) which made for a nice surprise.
Compared to the first series, Kai does feel a lot like "The Rika Furude Show" but that's in no way a bad thing since it's entirely necessary to see things from her point of view in order to get a grip on what the hell is actually going on. Plus all the other main characters kind of got their own arcs already. While it's a little disappointing that the horror takes a backseat this time around as the show becomes a more concerned with unravelling the mysteries of the first series, in doing so it basically turns into a better X-Files storyline than most of the later seasons of the X-Files. And everything does make sense by the end, I think. Not sure about the epilogue, it seems like the now time travel capable Rika encourages Takano to get on the same bus with her parents that they die on, and the driver still has a heart attack and crashes the bus just the same, but they all inexplicably survive. Wut? Was Rika trying to save her or kill her? I guess by Higurashi logic changes in the timeline can and do happen for seemingly no reason at all (like how sometimes Shion is in Hinamizawa and sometimes she isn't) but unless I'm missing something here surely showing them not getting on the bus would have made more sense? Perhaps all will be revealed in a later instalment I haven't gotten around to yet, or perhaps not. Speaking of Takano, I think she's a great example of how to write a tragic villain properly. She has understandable reasons for being the way she is, but she isn't reduced to being someone you're supposed to forgive for all her (pretty terrible) sins out of sympathy.
I also noticed this time that there's quite a pleasing anti-establishment streak to Higurashi. The town's fight against the government to stop a dam from wiping them off the map, the gang fighting the useless bureaucracy of social services to help Satoko or Ōishi and the other good cops risking their lives and careers to do what's right rather than just keeping their heads down; the idea of "Tokyo" (both figuratively and literally, it feels heavily implied) attempting to impose their will on the rural inhabitants of Hinamizawa and play games with their lives, yet finding themselves being fought at each turn by kids, cops, doctors, local kami and even yakuza granny, the spirit of people coming together to take on the man (and when they do they can win) seems to run right through the show. It's true it doesn't shy away from some of the less pleasant aspects of small town life (the Hōjō family's ostracization particularly) but it's hard after all this not to fall at least a bit in love with the people of Hinamizawa and the rural idyll they will come together to defend, bloodstained curses and all.
Dragon Slayer
The Wildcard
ATRI -My Dear Moments- Episode 12
My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 19
Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World Episode 12 (Complete. A fantasy series that portrays a very different and rather unique take on both the "Transported to Another World" and "Reincarnation" concepts.) 3.5/5
My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 19
Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World Episode 12 (Complete. A fantasy series that portrays a very different and rather unique take on both the "Transported to Another World" and "Reincarnation" concepts.) 3.5/5
adamclark83
Student Council President
Last night on Blu-ray, episodes 25-28 of Sailor Moon.
Demon Lord Retry! R episode 1 Short on time.
Detective Conan episode 1136 Ruiner.
Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! episode 12 Time together. (Complete. Though I didn’t take to this as much as some have, I can’t deny that I’d be happy to revisit these characters and their growth in the future.) 3.5/5
Monogatari Series: OFF & Monster Season ONA 11 Gluttonous act.
My Hero Academia 7th Season episode 157 Always watching.
The Elusive Samurai episode 12 A fortunate loss. (Complete. One of the standouts this season though it just misses a great rating - hoping for a season 2 in the future or else I’ll check out the manga.) 3.5/5
The Fable episode 25 One favour. (Complete. Though the animation was lacking the story and characters mostly made up for it and it was worth sticking with the series.) 3.5/5
Touch episodes 97-101, Touch: Miss Lonely Yesterday special, Touch: Cross Road - Kaze no Yokue (Complete. Another Mitsuru Adachi adaptation that I enjoyed, though the specials weren’t as good.) 3.5/5, 3/5, 3/5
Treasure Island episodes 1-10
Detective Conan episode 1136 Ruiner.
Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! episode 12 Time together. (Complete. Though I didn’t take to this as much as some have, I can’t deny that I’d be happy to revisit these characters and their growth in the future.) 3.5/5
Monogatari Series: OFF & Monster Season ONA 11 Gluttonous act.
My Hero Academia 7th Season episode 157 Always watching.
The Elusive Samurai episode 12 A fortunate loss. (Complete. One of the standouts this season though it just misses a great rating - hoping for a season 2 in the future or else I’ll check out the manga.) 3.5/5
The Fable episode 25 One favour. (Complete. Though the animation was lacking the story and characters mostly made up for it and it was worth sticking with the series.) 3.5/5
Touch episodes 97-101, Touch: Miss Lonely Yesterday special, Touch: Cross Road - Kaze no Yokue (Complete. Another Mitsuru Adachi adaptation that I enjoyed, though the specials weren’t as good.) 3.5/5, 3/5, 3/5
Treasure Island episodes 1-10
RaeDra
Straw Hat Pirate
Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture [English Audio] - Episode 10-12:
Since I finished this a while ago, the show unfortunately never recovered from the pivot, with an underwhelming final arc and villain. It has its moments, some terrific performances (Scissorman, in particular, chefs kiss) and maybe the ending might have meant more if I thought more of its story by the end. a very OK show.
Uzumaki [English Audio] - Episode 1:
as above, the dub is good so if you can stomach it [audible gasp, shock horror! /s] watch it, certainly made me wince a couple of times.
Since I finished this a while ago, the show unfortunately never recovered from the pivot, with an underwhelming final arc and villain. It has its moments, some terrific performances (Scissorman, in particular, chefs kiss) and maybe the ending might have meant more if I thought more of its story by the end. a very OK show.
Uzumaki [English Audio] - Episode 1:
as above, the dub is good so if you can stomach it [audible gasp, shock horror! /s] watch it, certainly made me wince a couple of times.