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Seen all Rating Comment
Bloom Into You (TV) Very good Yuri, possibly one of the better ones. Also has some ace/aro representation, at least at first.
Hmm, the first ep. was a little weird, with Nanami telling Koito she loves her like that. It didn't quite feel deserved? convincing?
Oh, it's finished already? This fansub had NCOP/ED files, so it looked like I still had two eps. to go >_< Hmm, I guess ep.13 works as a final ep., what with the cute aquarium date, but I would've liked a little more closure. Like, Yuu was still, like before, saying she wouldn't fall in love, and Sayaka didn't seem to have given up on Touko yet either. Touko seemed to have started to give some consideration to Yuu and Koyomi's new idea for the play, but they hadn't actually announced it yet, nor had the play been performed. It kinda feels like the anime got to the point the manga hadn't actually covered yet and just made a somewhat decent ending out of what was there so far. Overall though, this really is a nice yuri anime. The ace aspect isn't quite the focus, but it's there. There's a varied view of lesbians too, with Sayaka's past and Yuu&Riko's relationship.
Blue Drop (TV) Good Hmm.. mysterious. I like the music. It fits the scenes quite nicely.
This is such a lovely story, but I've been warned that the ending will be sad, so now I'm afraid to get too attached to the characters :(
Finally finished it. The ending was indeed quite sad, as expected. Before that it was nice, but the ending just negates that. So, overall, it wasn't very good.
Bodacious Space Pirates (TV) Excellent The OP already shows yuri potential, and in the first ep. there was some more teasing of that. If they're that obvious about it though, I dunno if it'll actually happen.. :/
The reviews said this anime was low on fanservice, but I still find male gaze very noticeable, and the outfits are a little showy too. It could be much worse of course, but that doesn't make it good.
The first eps. move a little slow. On one hand that's good because character development and backstory, on the other hand hurry up already I want to know what happens next >_<
Ep.19 was kinda filler-ish. The short racing arc wasn't the greatest either, although it had some cool action at the end. The last arc feels a little too compressed compared to the others.
Wow, was that ending ever a sequel hook. I really hope this gets a sequel (not just the movie, but a whole season more). It's really good ^_^
Bodacious Space Pirates The Movie: Abyss of Hyperspace Good A nice and good-looking movie that's kinda like an extra arc in the series. Even if it doesn't really change the status-quo, and there are some big plotholes, it's still entertaining.
BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense. (TV) Very good Seemed like a nice anime, maybe yuri? Oh, an S2 has been announced. No date yet, but I should probably wait until that's finished. Eh, S2 in 2022, so maybe I won't wait that long.
Ah, the first ep. was definitely cute fun. Seems like one of those anime that you can't help but want to watch just one more ep. Not sure about those guys scheming to 'watch over' Maple though. Seems a bit creepy :/
Hey, that was a really nice anime ^_^ Now and then it compresses things a bit that could've used more time, but overall it's really good. The creepy guys watching over Maple stay, but text-only they're tolerable. I wonder what kind of story S2 will have though. Maple's seriously OP (though Payne did get close to defeating her), and the dev avatars seemed to opt for not nerfing her. Which means the only way to go would be more ridiculous powers, but I wonder if that would still be as interesting. The early parts of this season were good too, even if the later parts were more thrilling. S2 wouldn't have much of the former I guess.
Bokurano (TV) Not really good Fifteen main characters? That has to be just way too many. The plot setup is so flimsy that even 13-year olds should be questioning it. And yet in some ways they act older than they are. Well, we'll see where this goes. The OP theme is awesome in any case.
Okay, so this is going to be very depressing. I'm not sure about the ending yet of course, but there's going to be a lot of sadness before that at least. And it's not like there aren't several unlikeable people among the main cast. However, with ep.5 and the preview for ep.6, it looks as if it's going to be icky as well. I'm not so sure if I want to go through all that, especially for 24 eps. Hmm.
Well, I watched all of it. The ickiness was only in those two arcs fortunately. Not that the rest is fun or anything. This anime is somewhat like Hell Girl with its drama and suffering. Unlike HG, it has a bigger plot to connect the individual stories. However, that bigger plot was mostly a failure for me. It is so far-fetched that it broke my suspense of disbelief early on. And even if it hadn't, there are just too many plotholes. The ending, despite being moderately 'happy' (compared to the rest of the anime anyway), fell a little flat after the buildup in the last few episodes.
Boogiepop Phantom (TV) So-so Not sure if I will like all the depressive stuff, but apparently it's otherwise very well-made.
Hmm, the well-made thing is relative I guess. The story is intriguing, but the image quality is deliberately bad (murky, almost monochrome color; blurry). I'm not sure that was such a great choice. The art style reminds me very much of Lain. The character designs are very similar, but also other visual aspects. Not surprising, considering the large overlap in staff. The translation is also not very good. A lot of on-screen text is not translated, and the speech translation is sometimes not quite accurate. These are apparently the official subs, and I'm not sure there are others.
Well, there was quite a bit of depressing stuff, but mostly the whole thing was hard to follow. As intended probably, because it certainly wasn't necessary to jump back and forth between present and five years ago all the time, and to tell the story backwards. Between that and the murky, monochrome darkness it's all very hard to connect. In the end the story wasn't bad, just made a lot more confusing than necessary.
Bottle Fairy (TV) So-so It reminds me of Adventures Of Mini-Goddess a little; the same lack of plot chibi-ness. The fairies' portrayal feels like fanservice at times though, which would be icky.
Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 (TV) Decent Women who kick ass? Cool.
Or so I thought. Well, it's not really bad or anything. It starts out nicely, but over time it becomes more like a regular super sentai series. Near the end the pacing gets really wonky, more like stop and go. Good girls thwart villain/part of the week, take a break to reflect semi-dramatically and get drunk with friends, then battle villain again because of some new exposition. So what started out as an interesting series lost points because of a weakening end.
Burst Angel (TV) Weak Listed as yuri. I'm not so sure about the male main character, but maybe it's not all from his POV. Probably fanservicey. Also mentioned by Friedman as yuri.
Well, from the opening scene and OP it has everything: underdressed women wielding big and bigger firearms, giant mecha of various kinds, and maybe a zombie here and there. Oh, seems the zombies were just for flavor. I wonder what Meg's role will be. The first two eps. she was only the distressed damsel.
So far (ep.8) there's no ongoing plot yet, only two-ep. mini stories. And Meg is indeed still the distressed damsel. Ep.11 introduces an extra guy, who's much more obtrusive than Kyouhei. That's also the first three-ep. mini story, with a hint at an ongoing plot. Ep.13 is a prequel ep. Ep.14 is the obligatory pool/beach ep., with even some flashback clips. It has so little plot maybe I could've skipped it actually.
Oh, it seems the plot is just very slow to get started, and just sort of fades in over time, with little hints here and there that coalesce into something more coherent. Well, slightly more coherent at least. In ep.21 we finally get to see what that opening of ep.1 was about.
Wtf was that ending? Up until ep.23 this was a very slow moving action anime with numerous plotholes. Half of the last ep. shows Meg & Jo getting back together, ending with Jo knocking Meg unconscious to go to battle, then the huge bad guy organization that the anime spent the whole time building up and up as nearly invincible is seemingly toppled in half an ep. That in itself is pretty anticlimactic, but at the end Jo and Sei are missing presumably asploded, Meg is just getting back to Tokyo and looking for Jo, presumably.. well, it's very unclear if she's given up on Jo or not, and Amy assisted with the ending but is pretty much leading her own life separate from the group. Takane was never really part of the core group, but also survives. All in all it's very rushed and unsatisfying if not just bad. What was the point of all this?
The OVA is just a prequel ep. of Meg&Jo in NY. Not sure if I still want to watch that now.
Burst Angel: Infinity (OAV) So-so Ah well, it's only one ep. anyway. Doesn't really add anything to the main series, just one more short prequel story.
BUTA (movie) Decent Hmm? The story isn't finished at the end. Seems more like a first ep. of a series. Which doesn't exist of course, so this is just the setup of a "walking the earth" type of story. The MacGuffin isn't very convincing, but I suppose that doesn't matter. I wouldn't want to watch a whole series of this, but as a single story in the Anime Mirai collection it's okay.
CANAAN (TV) Decent Wow, that was a confusing first episode. Don't eat this while watching dinner.
After three episodes there is still a lot that's unclear. Canaan is super cool though, and Maria is kinda cute.
I wonder what happened at the creative side of this anime. It started off totally awesome, then slowed down, and further down, and in the end it got all philosophical and nothing really happened. The characters (the ones left alive anyway) each went their way and lost touch with the others. I just don't understand why. The main badguys behind the plot didn't get punished, only the minor ones. The romance (or at least very close friendship) between Canaan and Maria seemed to have been switched off, and both philosophized about how they weren't right for the other. Bleh.
Candy Boy (ONA) Very good I hate the current fad of out-of-order episodes. You have to double check the real order of every anime to avoid spoilers.
This was supposed to have real lesbians, but after watching it, I'm not entirely convinced. I think it's the sisters angle that pushes it down from explicit to subtext. There is Sakuya of course, but she's so over the top that I can't take her seriously.
Other than that though, Yukino and Kanade are so sweet together that I wish this series was much much longer. Why is it always the best anime that are too short? :(
Cannon Fodder (movie) Weak You oculd call this slice-of-life I guess. War isn't really a subject you'd associate with that, but this is basically "a day in the life of..". Shortest of the three segments, and not really interesting. Again, well-animated, but that's about all you can say; the art isn't very pretty.
Cardcaptor Sakura (TV) Very good Wow, that took a long time. It was fun though, but be careful. Four out of five dentists got cavities just from watching this much kawaii overload. Despite being very long (70 episodes and two movies), there's still a coherent storyline, and of course there's plenty of room for good character development. I felt sorry for Tomoyo and Meilin though, getting sidelined in favor of the main romance.
Cardcaptor Sakura The Movie 2: The Sealed Card Very good See CardCaptor Sakura.
Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie Good See CardCaptor Sakura.
Carried by the Wind: Tsukikage Ran (TV) Very good This is a really fun action/comedy anime :) Completely undemanding and episodic, but that's not a bad thing. Ran and Miao are two really cool women, busting up badguys whenever necessary, but not making a big deal of anything (except sake).
I'd like to buy this anime, but the DVDs are out-of-print and very expensive :(
Castle in the Sky (movie) Very good The character designs are quite '80s. Some elements can be recognized from Nausicaä and Cagliostro, as well as general Miyazaki stuff like all the flying of course.
Finally got around to watching this again. Like with Nausicaä, some of the music strongly reminds me of Chrono Cross's soundtrack. I wonder if there's an interview with Mitsuda where he talks about his inspiration for it.
(The) Cat Returns (movie) Good A fun magical adventure :) The story is clearly inspired by Shizuku chasing the cat Muta in Whisper Of The Heart and finding the statue of the Baron in the antique shop. Not surprising really, as both movies are based on manga by Aoi Hiiragi.
A Centaur's Life (TV) Good This follows the manga pretty closely. It doesn't cover all of it of course, but there's a broad selection of stories from it, from the WW2 one to kindergarten cuteness. Unfortunately it also includes awkward fanservice/ecchi ones like the first chapter and the RPG one. Some Sassu/Antarctican ones are absent, as is the hostage one. Maybe they're saving those for a second season? Overall this is just as good (or weird) as the manga.
A Certain Magical Index (TV) Decent Generic male lead #532. Index seems to have taken a few pages from Lucky☆Star's Konata. The beginning is interesting, falling in the middle of this world with espers and magic users.
There's too much pointless dialogue/arguing and too little plot at the moment. Unless this series improves dramatically, I don't think I'll watch the second season.
And now a harem too. I feel like I don't dare ask how much more they can throw into this anime. Also, disconnected story arcs.
Well, there is a lot to criticize, but after all, the stories are interesting at least. So, I'll go watch the second season anyway.
Second time watching, since it seems Railgun T needs more than just Railgun / S. Yeah, the long-winded arguing is as bad as any long-running shounen anime. The anime would be much shorter if Touma just kept his mouth shut. Anyways, here's a list of arcs for reference:
1-6 intro, Orihime-1 destroyed
6-9 Deep Blood, Aisa intro
10-14 Sisters
15-17 Angel Fall, Misha & Tsuchimikado intro
18 Unabara intro, Kamijou faction mentioned
19-20 Last Order, Yoshikawa & Amai Ao intro, Accelerator injured
21-24 Counter Stop, Kazakiri, Cromwell & Stuart intro
Index isn't just about Index herself, but basically just the name of the manga/LN/whatever source. It contains everything else, not just the magic side, as seen in arcs #3,6,7 above.
Btw, for a fairly complete timeline, see this page on the wikia.
A Certain Magical Index II (TV) Decent This series could be awesome. If you look purely at the world-building, it is. However, it's dragged down somewhat by too much arguing-loudly-for-no-reason, and too little details at the right time (so that you wonder who is doing what to whom why a lot of the time). It's also dragged down a lot more by the stupid fanservice. Put together, it ends up being no more than okay. A real pity, because the base is so good.
From the look of the last arc, there's going to be a season 3 sooner rather than later.
Rewatching for Railgun T. Did I really watch this before? The first arc looked vaguely familiar, but the rest not really. There's 2½ magic arcs in here, but a lot of it is science side. And yeah, the drawn-out arguing and especially the fanservice drag this franchise down a lot. Anyways, a list of arcs:
1-5 Book Of Law, Amakusa, Angelene, Lucia, Orsola & Agnese intro
6-7 Remnant, Awaki intro, Tree Diagram destroyed, Shirai wounded
8-13 Daihaseisai/Stab Sword, Fukiyose, Lorenzetti, Thomson & Misuzu intro
14-16 Capital Of Water, Biagio intro
17-18 Penalty Game
19-23 Hound Dog/Kihara, Vento, Acqua, Terra, Fiamma intro
23-24 Skillout, GROUP intro
I don't really like the idea of this developing into a Academy City vs. Roman Church war. There's too many groups already without making all of them stab eachother in the back.
A Certain Magical Index III (TV) Not really good Well, that was the last part for now. I can't say it was good. For too much of it it's not very clear who is doing what to whom and why. There's a lot of drawn out arguments that don't serve any purpose other than to fill up time too. There's also many characters we already knew suddenly being killed off, and Hamazura suddenly becoming a main character during/after the Battle Royale arc. Misaka and clones are just bystanders at best, or victims. Especially during the last World War 3 arc many characters show up wherever the plot wants them to without any travel or sense. I get the feeling the writer tried to make the ending a bigger spectacle than anything before, but in the process ignored nearly everything before. If you're looking for something interesting/fun, just stick with the Railgun side. Even that has its not so great moments, but they're tolerable at least.
Anyways, list of arcs:
1-3 Document Of Constantine, Oyafune, Terra intro
4-6 Battle Royale, Xochitl, Sunazara, BLOCK intro, Uiharu wounded
7-9 Acqua, Fiamma intro
10-14 British Royal Family, Lessar intro
15-17 DRAGON, Tecpatl, Tochtli, Aiwass intro
18-26 World War 3, Misaka Worst intro
A Certain Magical Index: The Miracle of Endymion (movie) Good Takes place between the Remnant and Daihaseisai arcs of Index (Shirai is in a wheelchair due to her injuries in the Remnant arc; Kongou mentions she will participate in the Daihaseisai with Misaka).
A nice movie, with of course a lot of regular characters appearing. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to affect any other parts of the RailDex franchise. In particular the Endymion tower only appears in this movie.
A Certain Scientific Accelerator (TV) Decent Watched this because it might be necessary for Railgun T? Apparently not. It seems to be a side-story that goes between the Last Order and Penalty Game arcs of Index / 2, since obviously Last Order is there, but she and Accelerator aren't living with Yomikawa yet. DA was said to be completely gone at the end, so unless Scavenger (the 4 esper kids), Rosenthal (the necromancer) or Nakimoto (the board of directors badguy) reappear in later stories this is completely a side-story.
As such it's only so-so. Last Order is always cute of course, and Accelerator isn't as evil as he makes himself out to be, but the last half of this series is too drawn-out and hmm, un-RailDex-like? The necromancy vs. level 6 thing is like it, but the pseudo-soul suddenly being taken over by centuries-old ancestor thing which then 'evolves' by eating hunams, which then interfere with it, yeah, that's kinda too far out. Too much ideas kept piling on without making sense. The first ½-⅔ was okay though (about up to Hirumi becoming 'level 6') if you don't mind the magic side mixing up with the science side.
A Certain Scientific Railgun (TV) Very good A little different from the Index series, but kinda fun too, in a slice-of-life way. I hope they can keep down the fanservice.
It ended up being even more interesting than Index. Unfortunately, the fanservice was still there :(
Rewatched this to prepare for Railgun S. It's maybe not so much fanservice as it is a slight ecchiness. Mostly the jokes about Saten flipping up Uiharu's skirt and Kuroko molesting Misaka. Plus the filler beach ep. of course. That's plain fanservice.
The pacing is a bit uneven, with the Level Upper and MAR cases being full of action and the rest mostly slice-of-life paced. Most eps. do have some plot though.
Rewatching again before Railgun T. Yeah, Kuroko is especially annoying when she's after Misaka. Saten in comparison is only an occasional distraction. That whatshisname guy from Index should've been left out. In general it's the Index stuff that drags Railgun down.
List of arcs:
1-12 Level-Upper, Kiyama, Edasaki intro
13-14 slice-of-life, Ekatarina intro, Level-Upper wrapup
15-16 Big Spider, Kurozuma, Yanagisako, Capacity Down intro
17-24 Poltergeist, Kihara Gensei, Haruue, Terestina intro
OVA Someone's Watching, Jounan intro
A Certain Scientific Railgun S (TV) Very good I wonder if I'll have to rewatch Index S2 as well or if Railgun S1 is enough.
Well, this season doesn't waste any time getting into action. Some of the infodumping is a little clumsy though.
The introduction of ITEM is a bit abrupt, and I hope the lack of Saten/Uiharu/Shirai is remedied soon.
This season consists of two rather distinct parts. The Sisters arc doesn't deviate from the manga and is similar to what was shown in Index S2 (except from a different perspective of course). This means that Uihara and Saten don't appear at all and that Shirai's part is very limited. It is a pretty cool actionful arc, so it's definitely not all bad, but Misaka (Mikoto)'s behavior kinda contradicts her friendship with the other girls shown in the first season.
The second part fits in with the Railgun anime again and includes all four girls nearly all the time. Even Kongou gets a significant part. Of course, it's still Misaka (Mikoto)'s anime, so there's a lot of electric action. In the finale nearly every character gets to appear, and things get a bit silly, but appropriately actionful.
Overall, definitely worth watching and buying, but be prepared to not see Uihara and Saten (and mostly Shirai too) in the first ⅔ or so.
Rewatching before Railgun T. Yeah, sticking with the manga is maybe understandable because the anime will have to follow the main storyline, but her friends definitely wouldn't allow her to get away with her behavior in the Sisters arc otherwise. Not that they would be able to do all that much against Accelerator's nastiness, but they'd be fun to mix up with the clones.
List of arcs:
1 Poltergeist wrapup, Shokuhou intro
2-16 Sisters, Nunotaba, ITEM intro
17-24 Silent Party, STUDY, chemicaloids intro
A Certain Scientific Railgun T (TV 3) Very good I rewatched all of Railgun and Railgun S, but it seems this references some stuff from Index and Accelerator. Someone said "Index ep 19-20 > Accelerator > Index II ep 6-7 > Railgun T ep 1-15 > Index II ep 17-18 > rest of Railgun T" should be sufficient, but meh, I'll just watch all of Index and Accelerator then. (edit: I'd say Index 2 ep 17-18 (Penalty Game arc) isn't really necessary, and Accelerator is optional too; it only gives a little extra detail on Scavenger)
Well, it seems Index 3 mostly takes place after/separately from the second arc of Railgun T, so I'll save that for later.
The Daihaseisai arc was cool, even got Uiharu and Saten taking part in it, so it's better than the Sisters arc from Railgun S in that regard. I didn't like Shokuhou much for most of it, though at the end she got redeemed a little. I didn't also like that Misaka became the victim to be rescued at the end, with Kamijou of course doing the rescuing. I wish most of the franchise didn't hinge on his ability.
The Dream Ranker arc is also cool, though things get a bit confusing here and there. It's not quite clear why Shokuhou and Scavenger are involved, nor what Kuriba's double actually is. The wrapup of the Indian Poker thing wasn't shown either. I think Uiharu getting hurt is from some Index 3 arc, so I guess I'll see that when I watch it next. List of arcs:
1-15 Daihaseisai, MEMBER, Kouzaku, Baba, Xochitl, Sogiita, Dolly intro
16-25 Dream Ranker, Hokaze, Miyama, Hamazura, SCHOOL, Yumiya, Kakine, Yobou, Kuriba intro
Overall, a good Railgun season.
Chibits (special) So-so Nothing really special. Just a short bit of comedy with Sumomo and Kotoko.
Chihayafuru (TV) Decent (available from Siren Visual) Hmm, the OP suggests that this might be a bit of a "reverse harem" anime. Well, so far it isn't, but the art style is very shoujo. It's really obvious who the romantic interests/main characters are and who the extras are.
Although this is a tournament anime just like Saki, the dynamic is a little different. Saki was more exuberant (and showy), while this is more focused and slower. Of course, it also had way more characters.
Is ep.16 a clip ep.? I was beginning to notice the minimal animation in recent eps., but this one's just 4-koma gags with hardly any animation and flashbacks.
I can't really say what it is, but something feels off about this anime. Uninteresting characters? Slow story progress? Very limited animation? I dunno, but I'm still not sure I want to watch S2 atm.
Well, I guess I can watch S2 anyway. I still feel this anime lacks something though.
Chihayafuru 2 (TV) Decent Two new characters, who get about as much attention as the other first season's secondary characters. Animation is still very limited, and ep.16 is again a clip ep.
Maybe I've figured out what it is that was bothering me about this anime. It's the way all the Mizusawa characters panic/feel depressed/berate themselves during matches. We're told they're doing great, but most of their wins happen off-screen. What's shown is them stressing out to the point you have to wonder how they win even one match. Chihaya, Shinobu and Arata are the only ones who seem to enjoy playing karuta. The stress adds some tension to the tournaments, but it's rather unbalanced. Individual matches are also quite predictable. Mizusawa team member starts off losing big, stressed out to the max, has some epiphany halfway through the match, comes back big, then at the end either side wins barely. Either that or most of the match happens off-screen. All that worrying makes the characters less likeable. Those three are the only ones who are, and Shinobu and Arata don't get much screen time. Mashima in particular is annoying with his angsty and mopey behavior.
The ending left things really open. There's room for a third season, but since it's been two years since S2, I guess either it's not going to happen or they're waiting for more manga.
Anyway, overall it was interesting, but between the super limited animation and so-so characterization I can't call it great.
Chiko, Heiress of the Phantom Thief (TV) Good Well, I can't say I saw ep.6 exactly coming, but the speed with which all the characters were introduced and Chiko was trained was suspicious. I wonder what'll happen next to fit the ED.
Ah, the Detective Girls finally make their official debut in ep.15. I must say that the characters in this anime definitely aren't the usual copy-paste/database ones you see so often in recent years. The story wanders around quite a lot and isn't very linear, but it still seems to have a goal, so I don't mind. I also like how fantastic stuff is mixed with realistic characters. Some things are pretty far out, but it doesn't seem super-human.
Well, toward the end more super-human stuff got introduced, but the characterization was still okay. Overall, this is a pretty complex anime. Pity that we never got a definite happily-ever-after to Chiko or Oji-san, but at least everything else got a conclusion.
Chō Tanpen PreCure All Stars GoGo Dream Live! (movie) Good Wow, that took ANN a long time to add. And now they have it as "alternate retelling" of All Stars DX :/
Mostly interesting for hysterical raisins. It's the first installment in the All Stars series, with only the Max Heart, Splash Star and Yes! 5 GoGo teams. It's really short, and has very little plot. Unusual is that the ending has the girls dancing untransformed, which hasn't happened again I think.
Chobits (TV) Good I'll probably dislike the ecchi stuff, but it gets recommended quite often, so I suppose I'll give it a try.
Chi and Sumomo are very cute, but I'd like Hideki to die please. Horribly would be okay.
Well, toward the end of the series the ecchi stuff is lost, although Hideki still has moments of being too dumb to live. The ending (eps. 19-26) felt a little rushed. It had a deeper intrigue going that I think deserved more space. The first part of the series (eps. 1-17) could have done without Hideki being stupid and ecchi. Overall, I don't regret watching this anime. It wasn't bad, but it could have been even better.
Chobits (OAV) So-so See Chobits. Ep. 27 is another recap/clip episode.
(The) Chronicles of Rebecca (movie) Good Anime Tamago 2020
Hmm. Reminds of some '80s anime, with the art style and USAian 1800s setting. Well, I'm not sure I'd call it great, but it was nice, and well-animated.
Clannad (TV) Very good Watching some videos of "Dango Daikazoku" got me interested in this anime. I think this is the first anime where pregnancy/infancy are shown. Then again, it is very moetastic, so they'll probably leave out the messy/annoying aspects.
Yup, as expected of a Key/KyoAni anime, very moetastic. The humor is funny though so far. Also as expected, there's plenty of sadness. I'm surprised Fuuko's story takes so long, but there's 24 eps, not 12, so there's time enough.
Aww. Lots of sad moments, but also lots of funny or aww ones. This is another Key/KyoAni anime that's very well-made. Like Kanon and Angel Beats, except this one's much longer. And unlike Air, that one was kinda "ehh, what?". Looking forward to Clannad ~ After Story.
Clannad After Story (TV) Decent And the story continues. I watched the omake ep. first, to go with the omake ep. of season 1.
Ah, again they take their time with other characters' stories before progressing the main story.
Wow, ep.9 suddenly progresses things a lot. I fear for Nagisa though..
Just a few weeks on his new job and Tomoya is already putting work before Nagisa. Way to go :( I've also noticed Tomoya seems to cry a lot more this season.
And then ep.13 again speeds through a lot of time. From the beginning of ep.9 to the end of ep.13 more time passed than in the whole series before that. Well, okay. What's not okay though is how Tomoya takes it for granted that Nagisa becomes a housewife, and asks Akio to give her to him, and Akio gives her to Tomoya, and no one even mildly objects. It's like a century of gender equality progress didn't happen or something. Urgh. I'm starting to think Clannad isn't so great after all. The first season was fun, but two of the first three arcs this season were unnecessarily violent, and now Tomoya's gloominess and these archaic gender roles. Well, I'll finish it, but it's not looking so great for the to-buy list.
Huh? One moment they're still sleeping a meter apart, the next Nagisa's suddenly pregnant. Kinda makes you wonder about those storks after all.. Oh, even now that she's pregnant they're still sleeping apart. In fact, the most you see them do is hold hands, sometimes.
This series really speeds through, doesn't it? Last ep. Nagisa gave birth to Ushio and died afterwards, this ep. Ushio is already 5 years old. This really is Tomoya's story, not Nagisa's. Everything is told and viewed from his perspective. Huh, someone didn't do their research. Ushio's supposed to be 5, but she talks and acts like she's 3 at most.
Anyway, we're finally over the depressive stuff it seems; 3½ happy eps. One last downer before the ending I guess. Huh, that turned out to be a real downer, then a sort of reset to alternate timeline ending. That was a weird way to end it. Kinda like having their sad cake and eat a happy one as well. Not a really great way to end things, but at least it's sort of happy. And finally, another omake ep. that goes before the start of the series.
All in all I liked the first season, but the second season was very mixed. Too much violence, too much sadness and depression, all interspersed with happy times. I'm not really sure if I want to buy the first season, but the second, I think I'll pass.
Claymore (TV) Very good This was awesome. Nice gender role reversal too, with Raki being the naïve and emotional anchor to humanity and the kick-ass fighters all being women. There was a little too much exposition at times, but I suppose it's hard to get thoughts during a fight across in a visual medium. At one point it veered into ridiculous when they gave percentages for power and such, but fortunately that didn't stick. The ending was a little unsatisfying. It ended the series with a nice climax, but didn't answer the deeper issues that had been hinted at all along. I hope it'll get a second season for that.
Second time watching. Somehow I remembered there being a timeskip and Raki suddenly gaining some kind of power himself. Must've remembered that from looking up the manga, because the anime doesn't have it. Which is good because Raki was annoying enough already when he wanted to be strong and help Clare. Should've just accepted his role as pet.
Clare repeating things she's just seen or been told out loud still feels silly. I suspect they stuck a little too close to the manga there? Could've done with just internal speech or omitted it altogether (not the thoughts during fights, just the repeating).
Overall though, it was really good. Better even than I remembered because of that later manga part not being in the anime.
CODE-E (TV) Very good Heh. The beginning of the first ep. was quite effective. After seeing the '2017' date, I wondered why there were still an old rotary phone and CRT TV. Turns out there's a good reason for that.
Aw, Code-E was only the first half of the series. And Mission-E hasn't finished subbing yet :( This is a nice anime though. The ending was decent, although there is much unresolved of course.
Colorful Ninja Iromaki (movie) Good Anime Tamago 2016
This finally got subbed too. A bit silly a simple, but cute enough.
Combustible (movie) So-so Part of Short Peace. See there for comments.
Comedy (OAV) Decent Part 3 of Sweat Punch, discussed here.
The first Sweat Punch part that tells a proper story, even if it's only a short fairytale/legend. The art wasn't really my taste. Why was this called Comedy (Kigeki) though? There's no humor in it at all.
Coppelion (TV) So-so The first ep. does a remarkable job of dumping a lot of info without appearing like an infodump too much.
Hmm, the rest of the anime is kinda mixed. The characters aren't very deep, so the drama feels a little put on at times. That's not helped by the rare moments of comedy either, which just clash with the tone of the rest. There are a few too many plotholes or instances of science being ignored to ignore as well. All in all it's not a complete waste, but I can't really recommend it either.
Corpse Princess: Aka (TV) So-so Hmm, the reviews aren't very enthusiastic about this anime. The first episode is okay, but unfortunately the story is told not from Makina's perspective but from the two guys hanging around her. The result is that she gets very little depth but quite a bit of fanservice. Oh well, I'll give it several episodes at least.
Well, the eps. move quickly, so I watched all of it. The story gets more and more complex, passes a climax in ep.11/12, which is then followed by a flashback ep. Why did they split this into two seasons if this and Shikabane Hime Kuro are clearly one story?
The girls are likeable, but really only get screen time during fights. Oori gets a little less boring with time, but still isn't all that interesting. I guess he'll go through a quick power up training and then take his brother's place. That guy got slightly less annoying with time, but still had his moments. The other priests are mostly there to keep the story going
What is it with two-person teams always having a guy in command and a girl doing the fighting?
Anyway, the question now is if I want to watch Kuro too. On one hand the story isn't finished with just Aka, but on the other hand, it isn't that great really, and the characters only so-so.
Crest of the Stars (TV) Good The Banner Of The Stars series (Crest, and Banner I - III) is very good. The setting and characters are complex and thought-provoking, especially the Abh and Abh society and the relationship with other humans. The pacing of the story is a little uneven sometimes, but the series is quite long, so it's not so bad. I like that the story never really falls into clichés. The art/animation style reminds me of older anime. The music is nothing to write home about and varies from unremarkable to overly dramatic to downright silly.
Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth - The Animation (TV) Decent The beginning of the first ep. already says this is going to be very moe. Yes, it's very moe indeed. Grandpa Oscar comes across as slightly creepy and condescending rather than charming or doting.
That narrator sounds so stiff. Like he's doing audio examples for a textbook or reading a fairy tale to little children. Yune gets treated like an exotic creature on display a lot of the time.
A goodie, it's a sickness episode. Why do anime characters always overreact to simple colds?
Claude continues to be a jerk. Oscar got better, although everyone is still a little condescending to Yune. The ending (not that it is much of one; there just aren't more eps.) left some threads unfinished, but I guess that makes it more slice-of-life.
Not a bad anime, just a little weird. Maybe it's the unusual setting, but it didn't really hold my interest much. Not bad, it just could've been better I suppose.
Cyberteam in Akihabara (TV) Not really good The art is rather dated, and the animation not very smooth. I can't tell yet if the story is going to be good. So far it seems not much more nonsensical than some other anime.
Bleh. The head villains keep talking in philosophical-sounding nonsense, and the interactions with them are getting surreal. This reminds me a lot of Utena actually.
Overall, this anime is just nothing special. Too much time is spent explaining the convoluted backstory. Time that should have been spent showing the main characters, either in their daily lives or having more interesting fights against the villains. The ending isn't exciting either. Now and then there are some interesting bits (the villain sidekicks' story, Tsubame's redemption), but they're lost in the mass of mediocrity.
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