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The Winter 2014 Anime Preview Guide


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Touma



Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2651
Location: Colorado, USA
PostPosted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 7:30 pm Reply with quote
Hellwarden wrote:
BTW is this site having some odd issues with anyone else? Like the forums are squished to the left right now, the login button doesn't work at the top of the page? It's happening in both Firefox and Chrome for me.

There is a thread about it in the Bugs & Technical Questions forum.
EDIT: It should be working now.
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TehDarkPrince



Joined: 07 Jun 2012
Posts: 67
PostPosted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 9:25 pm Reply with quote
I thought Imocho might have been a decent show worth following-- that was until the belt debuted, and it was all downhill from there. Shit shows are one thing, but I hate it when shows could be decent or even great, yet get dragged down by bad execution or trying to be sincere, but then have a spoiler[slapstick yuri session. It tried to be a slice-of-life comedy in the first five minutes, than threw in the faux-taboo relationship, than the quantum leap towards auto-erotica by phantasmal proxy].

I have no issue with plenty of fan service shows, but usually you understand what you're getting very early on-- Maken-ki was kind enough to do that within it's first minute; the layers of sweetened cream cheese are layered into the entire baked good from the first bite. But this one hid a giant blob of it inside a seemingly bland, but edible pastry.
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omoikane



Joined: 03 Oct 2005
Posts: 494
PostPosted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:00 pm Reply with quote
goldensneer wrote:
What does it say about the series' marketing side of things when their 2D counterparts are flashing their panties like it's going out of style?

It says people have a lot of misconception about their entertainment.

Idols are identities, not people. People play the role, they are actually not what their marketing, advertising and production teams say they are. It's the natural application of honne and tatamae.

Don't confuse entertainment with slavery.
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zensunni



Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 1290
PostPosted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:05 pm Reply with quote
rederoin wrote:
aereus wrote:
Inari Kon Kon is definitely hard to pin down a genre for. It's inked by a male author AFAIK, in a seinen magazine, often tagged with the shounen genre, yet has significant shoujo and romance leanings.

Then again, seinen are often hard to categorize, which is often a good thing.

Seinen/shoujo etc.. are not genre's, they are manga magazine demographics. So it shouldn't be hard to pin it down at all. All You have to do is look at what manga magazine its published in.

Exactly!

That said, sienen romance is frequently confused with shoujo because they both tend to concentrate more on relationship dynamics than shounen romance titles, and frequently involve some sort of fantasy element. The telling factor is frequently the complexity of the relationships involved, but that is not always the case. The fact that Inari Konkon Koi Iroha has a female protagonist is probably what makes people perceive it as a shoujo title, as most seinen titles have male protagonists, though frequently with extremely strong female leads as well. (Though this is not necessarily the case, as titles like Moretsu Pirates are also in the seinen genre.)

spoiler[The presence of yuri sub-plots in a non-yuri title is another thing that tilts the balance toward seinen. Most shoujo titles are one or the other. You don't see a whole lot of shoujo romance where there are both het and yuri couples, as this goes on, some of the side characters will prove to be very, very yuri.]

I really, really enjoyed Inari Konkon Koi Iroha! It may very well be my favorite first episode of the season. Of course, I recently read the manga and was really looking forward to it...
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kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
Posts: 1205
PostPosted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 1:07 am Reply with quote
Hellwarden wrote:
You know if there is one thing this season has taught me, it's that I'm either a humorless husk of a person, or anime humor just isn't funny.

I've watched Space Dandy, D-Frag, Tonari no Seki-kun, No-Rin, and the farthest they've gotten humor wise is awkward chuckle, and a half-hearted one at that.


Even to my overactive sense of humor, Space Dandy was only awkwardly funny (never saw the second episode). Seki-kun was a short, yet still felt tedious because they spent the whole thing on one barely-escalating joke, like an animated SNL skit. Strange+ was pretty funny, though.
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Shippoyasha



Joined: 28 Aug 2007
Posts: 459
PostPosted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 4:29 am Reply with quote
No-Rin and Zvezda were true standouts alongside Inari. No-Rin just has a sharp sense of comedy that can turn at a dime and Zvezda is absurd in a pretty likable manner. Lot of amazing animation In all these shows. The comedic element just stands out very well also. And this is only the first episodes we're talking about.

For all the griping about fanservice with certain blogs, I kind of find it weird that I'm actually enjoying a lot of anime this season that has a ton of fanservice. But they just don't really come across as over the top considering a lot of shows seem awfully self aware of their dynamic.

Nobunagun can get more fun with episodes to come and I wonder when the battles go to a next level. Saki is fun so far and I wonder how the side story anime season ties into it. I had to rewatch Side-A because it had a lot of overlap with the newest episode.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2597
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 8:38 am Reply with quote
I probably phrased it in a confusing way (reading too much 19th century stuff at the moment), but what I meant was that Inari Kon Kon feels like shoujo, not that it demographically is. I got serious Hime-chan no Ribon vibes from it, regardless of where it was originally published.
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zensunni



Joined: 05 Mar 2010
Posts: 1290
PostPosted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 10:32 am Reply with quote
Princess_Irene wrote:
I probably phrased it in a confusing way (reading too much 19th century stuff at the moment), but what I meant was that Inari Kon Kon feels like shoujo, not that it demographically is. I got serious Hime-chan no Ribon vibes from it, regardless of where it was originally published.

Yeah, it does have a strong shoujo vibe, especially with the protagonist being a middle school girl. But I think we should all embrace our inner teenage girl and enjoy things like this! (You can take that however you want...)
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SethMosrite



Joined: 27 Nov 2010
Posts: 173
Location: Boston, MA
PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 1:16 am Reply with quote
I've basically caught up with all the first episodes now. These are my very basic first impressions (I'm leaving out continuing shows).

Excellent: Inari Konkon Koi Iroha

Good: Space Dandy, Noragami, D-Frag, Witch Craft Works, Nisekoi

So-so: The Pilot's Love Song, Sakura Trick, Wake Up Girls, Wizard Barristers

Bad: Nobunagun, Buddy Complex, Hozuki no Retetsu, World Conquest

Garbage: Nobunaga the Fool, Super Sonico, Hamatora, Magical Warfare, Engaged to blah blah

The excellent and good categories I will stick with all season, so-so shows will be on a short leash, and I've dropped the shows in the bottom two categories.


Last edited by SethMosrite on Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:43 pm; edited 1 time in total
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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5500
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 3:16 am Reply with quote
Just a few more things I watched these days

Silver Spoon Ep. 2 Amazing episode. It's not like I doubted I was going to follow this one, but this episode was brutally fantastic

Hozuki no Reitetsu Ep. 2 I laughed so much. I definitely love Hozuki, he's amazing with his non-plussed attitude. The second part with Satan? God, that was brilliant.

Hamatora Ep. 2. Significantly more stupid than episode 1, and still enjoyed it. I know everyone's hating the living daylights out of this show, but I find it pretty cool in spite of its lack of originality and seizure inducing color palette.

Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. The visuals are very beautiful, and that all of the cast speaks in such distinctive dialect (Kansai-ben, I figure) feels great on the ears. And I found the concept very sweet and with great execution. This one's a keeper.

Pupa ep. 2. Did I mention how silly that monster looks?. This show really should've been full length. Five minutes for a serious horros like this doesn't even leave any impression :/

Well, now that it's wrapped up I have a very decent picture of what I'll enjoy this season.

Keepers
Noragami. My favorite thus far. Love the characters, love the comedy, and it's just insanely charming.
Inari Konkon. Very sweet and cute. Uka-no-Mitama is gorgeous and the MC is very adorable herself
Nobunaga the Fool. This is the epitome of what I love. Take random people from world history, throw them all in a blender machine and make them fight in giant robots. The only way this could be better is if they had magical powers too.
Nobunagun. The action sequences are amazing and Sio has so far been a very well fleshed-out protagonist. It's so much crazy fun.
Hamatora I like the concept of "group of superpowered good looking people doing odd jobs". I'm not really invested in the plot or the characters, but I just find the fact of watching people with superpowers doing cool stuff heavily entertaining.
Hozuki no Reitetsu. That protagonist is like the best thing to happen in the history of everything. Many jokes fly over my head, but the ones I do get are so great.
Silver Spoon 2 The only surprise here is how amazing it is to see Hachiken keep growing and maturing. I love this show. Also love the ending, I'd never heard of Goose House (except for that beautiful YUI tribute that came out recently, with them singing an amazing cover of "Life"), but I'm definitely loving what they have going on.
Tonari no Seki-kun. Didn't expect this to be so much fun. It's also a short, which helps, since my schedule is already so packed.

(plus continuing: Magi 2, Kuroko no Basket 2, Saint Seiya Omega, Kill la Kill, NagiAsu, Samumenco and Yowapeda)

Wait and see

Space Dandy. It's definitely a very good looking show, but apart from how fricking cute Meow is, I haven't found it particularly fun or interesting. Unless episode three knocks me off my socks, I'll probably just wait for it to be over and marathon it then.

Wizard Barristers. Not a great fan of the Umetsu character design, and the protagonist is pretty annoying, but the animation looks great. I'll wait for it to be over and if it turns out to be a Galilei Donna level of trainwreck, I won't even bother looking back at it.

Sekai Seifuku. There are things I like about this show, but the first episode was not really memorable for me and I really really hate the Kugimiyawannabe tsundere. Will wait for it to be over and decide whether or not to pick it back up

Dropped

Witch Craft Works. Episode two was so terrible I couldn't take it. It's a shame because I find Kagari to be a very interesting type of character, but that stupid semen pun that ran through the whole episode just killed it for me.

Pilot's Love Song. This one frustrates me. It has everything I like: fantasy, politics, romance, a quest for mythical treasure, even a lot of Spanish names and nods to historical characters... but it's just so horribly executed I want to gauge my eyes out. Horrible animation, terrible character designs, atrocious script and dialogues, cookie-cutter annoying characters. Oh god. Unless some review comes out saying the series took a dramatic leap of improvement, I'm done with it

I think it's the first time in years that I find myself so busy in a winter season, and I'm currently really happy with the big pool of promising shows coming out. Great start of the year for anime.
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ZodiacBeast



Joined: 26 Jan 2010
Posts: 142
PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 6:26 am Reply with quote
Nisekoi sucked the life out of me. It was so bland and unforgettable. I hope future episodes show an improvement.

Episode 2 of WCW was much better than the first, but the first wasn't that bad to begin with. I'm glad that Takamiya is making an effort to get stronger. Episode 2 of Sakura Trick and D-Frag were also better than their first showings. Mikakunin is still pretty good. Hopefully ep 2 of Barristers and Sekai Seifuku will be improvements as well.

The only things this season that truly "suck" are Mahou Sensou and Pupa.
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EternalKnight001



Joined: 01 Mar 2013
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 12:37 pm Reply with quote
Keepers: Noragami, Nobunaga the Fool, Seitokai Yakuindomo, The Pilots Love Song, Nobunagun, Buddy complex, D-Frag, Hamatora, Witchcraft Works, Engaged to the Unidentified, Strange +, Magical Warfare, Wake up Girls, Nisekoi, World Conquest and Inari Kon Kon.

Returning shows from last season keepers: Kuroko's Basketball, Ace of the Diamond, Nagi no Asukara, Golden Time, Tokyo Ravens, Yowapeda, Log Horizon, (maybe Strike the Blood- might drop it soon)

Maybes: Recently my sister is unusual, Pupa, Z/X Ignition, Tonario no seki-kun, Chunibyo, No-Rin

Dropped: Super sonico, Hozuki no Reitetsu, Sakura trick, Wizard Barristers

didn't watch: Space Dandy, Robot Girls Z, Oneechan ga Kita, Silver spoon 2.

Tis going to be a BUSY SEASON. Also, loving the new op/ed for Nagi no Asukara and Yowapeda and Kuoroko; and Noragami, Magical Warfare, Hamatora op/eds are all amazing too.... ah, anime Anime smile[/b]
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 14 Dec 2012
Posts: 1379
PostPosted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 9:07 pm Reply with quote
Looks like this season I'll be following Nisekoi, Silver Spoon Season 2, Noragami, Nobunagun, Space Dandy, Zvezda Plot, Pupa and potentially Hamatora and Buddy Complex. I'm waiting for the first three episodes on those last 2 to make up my mind. I'm also rather interested in Inari Kon Kon, though I'll probably wait on that one until I can watch it all in one go rather than week-to-week.

Sort of a middling season IMO, though there are some pretty neat shows as always. At least nothing but Recently, My Sister is Unusual and No-Rin were rancid so far. For as much as I loved some of the series this past fall, there were some steaming stinkers in the bunch.
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rheiders



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
Posts: 1137
Location: Colorful Colorado :)
PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:52 am Reply with quote
Finished watching everything I was planning on watching and have my final line-up, with the exception of Inari Kon Kon, since I'm not a Funi subscriber and will wait to watch that one. Somehow I end up starting more shows with each season even though I know I don't have time for all of them xD This season is pretty mediocre overall, with a lot of "okay" shows and no great ones. However, there are quite a few carry-overs from previous seasons that are still really good.

Buddy Complex ep1 (3/5): I'm not even that big of a mecha fan, but somehow I keep getting sucked into these Sunrise "totally-not-Gundam" mecha shows. All it takes is a slightly interesting gimmick and I'm pretty much guaranteed to follow it. Last time it was space vampires, and this time it's time travel. I'm interested to see where it goes.

Nisekoi (2.5/5): I have no idea why Shaft decided they needed to Shaft all over this show, since it seems to be based on a pretty generic shounen harem series. The weird artsy-fartsy style only hinders this show, and I found myself wanting to skip large parts of the episode. I'll probably still pick up the manga if I get the chance, since I can skim the boring parts of that.

Watching:
Silver Spoon 2: A great show continuing from last summer and starting off even stronger than it ended. Even if every other show I'm watching ends up crapping the bed, I can always count on this show for quality.
Space Dandy: Funny and insanely visually inventive. The quality and content will vary wildly from week to week by virtue of what kind of show this is, but that's also what will hopefully keep it interesting for me.
Noragami: Great sense of humor and style, love the characters. Animation, being BONES, is fantastic.
Houzuki no Reitetsu: Hilarious, adorable.
Tonari no Seki-kun: Hilarious, short.
Nobunaga the Fool: Hilarious, dumb, loud, great seiyuu.
Engaged the the Unidentified: Really cute and fun; characters are absolutely huggable.
Buddy Complex: Apparently I'm doomed to watch Sunrise mech shows.

All the ones under Seki-kun are potentially on the chopping block as I work out how many of these I can actually handle watching at once. I am also continuing to watch Nagi-asu, Kill la Kill, Samumenco, Yowapeda, Magi 2, and Strike the Blood. Samumenco and StB are the only ones I'm likely to drop from that group, though I have to say despite the strongly mixed feelings I have about Samumenco right now, I'm still strongly attached to the core characters and have been enjoying even the most recent episodes, though not as much as the first seven.

Dropped like a Rock:
The Pilot's Love Song: I'm in the same boat as CrowLia on this one, in that I really wanted to love it because it includes a lot of the things that typically appeal to me, but that second episode was so awful I just can't justify continuing to waste my time on it. I'll keep an eye on the series thread, but I doubt it'll improve. Perhaps I'll just re-watch Last Exile instead! Very Happy
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ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
PostPosted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 4:32 pm Reply with quote
CrowLia wrote:

Pupa ep. 2. Did I mention how silly that monster looks?. This show really should've been full length. Five minutes for a serious horros like this doesn't even leave any impression :/



Yes, I agree the monster is probably one of the worst I have seen in many years. It is like they took one of those background monsters/demons (the type that are only there to be blown up or disintegrated by the good guy's attacks) from an early to mid 90's show. I don't know if it is just because the manga monster looked like that or something, but it is truly dreadful. You would think they could have come up with a more modern (and cool looking) design, but maybe their budget is just THAT bad. (I assume a more intricate design would be more costly to animate). I guess I just expect my monsters and demons to be more terrifyingly beautiful in modern shows, or at least massively intimidating.
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