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The Winter 2016 Anime Preview Guide


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:41 pm Reply with quote
So Winter has started..

Phantom World is off to a strange start so far imo. I mean, it's funny in some ways but eh, need to watch more to get a better feel of it. At least the animation seems nice but quite generic as well. I hope there will be some promising shows this season.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3442
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:50 pm Reply with quote
Pretty nice to have a little description at the start, re reading every reviewer explaining the basic concept got a bit old.

Phantom header picture might not give the best impression of the show. Laughing

I guess at this point its mostly selling on kyoani name.
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Via_01



Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:52 pm Reply with quote
Myriad Colors Phantom World: Ok, I'll admit, I had fun with this one. The plot is rather cliché, but it does enough to set itself apart. I liked how it played with some of the fanservice-y elements (such as Mai's chest) to actually pull a laugh out of me (though I'm sure that's not how boobs work... but hey, as a man, I still find it enjoyable). It's also a KyoAni production, so obviously the direction is solid and it looks gorgeous as hell. I can even understand why they chose this light novel out of any other: the way the premise is handled allows for a lot of visually interesting moments, such as the but at the beginning where the main character is waking up and his room slowly materializes out of some sort of data bits as he begins acknowledging everything around him.

But most impotantly, dancing utility poles. I need more dancing utility poles in my life. I'll keep watching thanks to the utility poles.


Last edited by Via_01 on Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:54 pm; edited 1 time in total
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maxwell3094



Joined: 28 Mar 2014
Posts: 148
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:53 pm Reply with quote
Yay here we go! Get your popcorn ready everyone!

Not sure about Phantom World yet. It certainly does look nice but I ended up spending most of the episode cringing at it. For now ill see where it goes.

Also I like this new change to the preview guide of having 1 main synopsis at the top. Nice to have that handy.
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Blankslate



Joined: 30 Jun 2015
Posts: 425
Location: Atlanta, GA
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:53 pm Reply with quote
Phantom World - 1.5/5
Really the only thing this show has going for it is Kyoani's production values. Everything else was horribly generic.

Prince of Stride - 3.5/5
The first episode did a good job introducing all the characters, and I hope that they get more development as the series goes on. Other than that, the art style was instantly striking, the soundtrack was catchy, and the animation was pretty great. I'm gonna continue watching this series.

Haruchika - 2.5/5
Something about this almost put me to sleep, but at the same time it also piqued my interest. I'm glad that the gay (or possibly bisexual) male is treated with respect unlike most other anime series. I'll keep an eye on this even though I'm not particularly jazzed by it.
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Wingbeats



Joined: 23 Feb 2015
Posts: 272
Location: Boise, Idaho
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:56 pm Reply with quote
Preview guide hype!

I have no idea why, but I love that "new season of anime is here" smell and I love the preview guides each time as well.

Here's to adding a bunch of crap to my Funi/CRqueues Very Happy Going to do my normal thing of attempting to watch at least one episode of everything.

Edit: And kudos to the anime description at the very top. Yay for no more repetitive recaps! Great idea.


Last edited by Wingbeats on Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
Posts: 3679
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:56 pm Reply with quote
At the very least, KyōAni's art department is as strong as ever.
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RestLessone



Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Posts: 1426
Location: New York
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 2:59 pm Reply with quote
Ah, we're off to another season. I like the description being at the top, too. Looks good!

Phantom World has this somewhat interesting premise and I love what it was doing at the start with the pixels. The first phantom they fought was pretty generic, but the three later looked neat. Unfortunately, I think it's going to suffer from too many LN tropes, which I have a decidedly low tolerance for depending on the series. Not planning on sticking around, but if I hear it's strong, I might try it again. As for the boobs, I felt they were outlandish and kinda funny. It's cheese.

Prince of Stride sure was a sports series. It looks fine, but damn it's off to a generic start. I have no idea how it plans to balance such a large cast (main team + opposition).

Funimation's subs were sort of distracting, too. Once in a while one of their shows will substitute surnames with given names, which I dislike. (Last one was Rainy Cocoa, which I obstinately forced myself to finish.) They do that here, but it's not consistent. Sometimes they keep the surnames, sometimes they switch. They generally don't use senpai, then suddenly they do. I hope they keep with the Japanese audio, but at the very least they should be consistent.

Then HaruChika. I don't feel too strongly about this right now, but it's off to a good enough start. Everyone looks so shiny. The ending twist is interesting. Just hope they handle it well; anime's track record can be sort of... Also, I feel like the VA they picked for the teacher doesn't fit well. I'm sure I'll get used to it though.
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JacobC
ANN Contributor


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:03 pm Reply with quote
maxwell3094 wrote:

Also I like this new change to the preview guide of having 1 main synopsis at the top. Nice to have that handy.


Thanks! I'm writin' all those, so I hope people like them. Tryin' to keep em light and frothy. Very Happy
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princess passa passa





PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:11 pm Reply with quote
Alright, let's get this going and over with! New season, new shows and too little time for me but I did check out Prince Stride so far and it was a bit flat like Lynzee said. I was a bit let down not just at the humour but also how it all felt too rushed (?), and that Haru knock off is a bit distracting.

But it gets a passing grade so far and I will continue to check it out and give it a couple more chances (three eps. rule!) if not for the seiyuu cast.
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chito895



Joined: 22 Jan 2015
Posts: 512
Location: Lima, Peru
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:14 pm Reply with quote
I really enjoyed the first episode of Phantom. The characters are nice so far and the animation and art is looking really good. It seemed that they really tried to avoid some stupid and more annoying genre clichés like the MC who falls on boobs or enters a girls room. I even giggled at the stupid boob physics scene that remind of a certain scene from Highschool of the Dead. Sometimes my KyoAni fanboy-ism makes me love everything they make.

Hopefully the characters will grew together as a nice group of friends like in other KyoAni shows, the fanservice doesn't ruin nice scenes, and the plot goes somewhere interesting.
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Penguin_Factory



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 732
Location: Ireland
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:30 pm Reply with quote
The single episode synopses are a smart idea. I imagine the writers are happy about being able to dive straight into the commentary.
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Via_01



Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:35 pm Reply with quote
HaruChika: It started rather weak, but as a flute player, I was rather interested because the main character is a flute player as well. The musical aspect of the premise didn't get much attention, but the mystery wasn't too boring... and I must say, that twist at the end is not something you see all the time, at least not in this type of show.
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Barbobot



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 460
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:37 pm Reply with quote
The only thing I may miss with this slightly altered format are Zac/Hopes more sarcastic synopsis's of terrible shows. Those can be entertaining by themselves before you get to the actual preview portion, but it's still better and more convenient than having every entry say basically the exact same thing in the first paragraph.
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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2345
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:47 pm Reply with quote
Yay phantom looks nice but given kyonai's (IMO) horrible track record with action fantasy and the general lack of writing quality to a lot of their in house light novels I am going to give this one a pass probably unless I hear really good things about it.

I really wish kyoani would just go back to adapting other peoples work. The only one from them recently I actually looked forward to watch was Amagi brilliant park and a lot of that was because of they went back to adapting works by shoji gatoh

Free at least can be entertaining (sorry I am a straight guy) as a comedy, while sound euphoinum was just bland and mostly uninteresting to me since I really didn't care for almost any of the charcters at all and was not a band member in high school.

Why do kyoani keep doing these light novel we won't give this our top prize but it's good enough for an adaptation anyway for the general public, it just makes no sense to me.
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