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The Spring 2014 Anime Preview Guide


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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 5:55 pm Reply with quote
Well, I'll give the MC of Mekaku City Actors credit for remaining a hikkikomori after downloading that avatar. She would have chased me off the internet in two hours flat.

Not quite clear on how many timelines that just covered, but overall it intrigued me enough to keep going with it.
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rheiders



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
Posts: 1137
Location: Colorful Colorado :)
PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 5:59 pm Reply with quote
Mohawk52 wrote:
That's a disgraceful ripoff of Hatsune Miku I've seen yet.

I don't know if I'd call it a rip-off, since the series is based off the "Kagerou Project" series of Vocaloid songs in which Ene is "played by" Hatsune Miku...From the credits it looks like there's a Kagamine Len character too.

I've been seeing quite a bit of hype for this series (and the songs), to the point where it's starting to get a bit annoying. I checked out the first song but shut it off a couple minutes in because it's not very good music. But I figured I'd give the show a shot too.

Mekakucity Actors (3/5): The first half was really boring and mildly annoying. I hope Ene gets less grating as the show goes on. The second half was pretty fun though, and it looks like the crazy Shaft visuals are a much better fit here than they were for Nisekoi. The character designs are fun too. Considering how convoluted and nonsensical most Vocaloid stories are I don't have particularly high hopes going forward, but I'll keep watching for now.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:10 pm Reply with quote
Chagen46 wrote:


I don't know, Hope, you could do this MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGICAL thing called "research".

Not that you've EVER done that before.


Dear Chagen,

You've been laying in on super thick in the forums lately. Starting fires in every thread you can, attacking people for expressing opinions you don't agree with, picking fights with mods and admins, and now you're just being an aggressively insulting butthead. Again.

Calm down or it's time for another ban. They work now. I tried it.
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:31 pm Reply with quote
Hey, Hope, I disagree. Sasami-san was completely watchable.
Sure, I'm not entirely sure what the hell I watched, but I definitely watched it. In fact, I'm still not quite sure what Sasami-san was about...

Hopefully, Mekakucity won't pull the same crap Sasami-san did: Interesting premise, decent characters... convoluted plot.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 7:13 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I'm definitely not sold on Mekakucity Actors yet. I'll give it another eppie or two but if it remains a snoozefest, out it goes.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 7:31 pm Reply with quote
Re: Theron Martin's Mekaku City preview: Akiyuki Simbou is the director, not creator.
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agila61



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 3213
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 10:41 pm Reply with quote
Chagen46 wrote:
Hope Chapman wrote:
How can we know for sure that Mekaku City Actors is meant to be a mystery adventure? Maybe like Nisekoi it was supposed to be a wacky dramedy, and that subtext got rained out in a deluge of Shinbo-ism. Now that it's happened at least once, we should expect it to happen again until Shaft finally decides to try something different, if they ever do.


I don't know, Hope, you could do this MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGICAL thing called "research".

Can we go for a little reading comprehension please, Chagen? That's quite clearly referring to the anime production, not whatever original work the anime production is based on. There's no "research" that can tell us for sure what Shaft actually intends to do with this material ... not unless you've got secret access to the episodes that are yet to go to air.

As far as the episode itself, I'm just now taking a break from writing something, so lessee ... oh, I had a hell of a lot of fun watching that episode. 4/5 from me. I guess I'm lucky I didn't get my fill of that style yet, having dropped Nisekoi after the second episode.


Last edited by agila61 on Sun Apr 13, 2014 12:34 am; edited 2 times in total
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Kaioshin_Sama



Joined: 05 Feb 2005
Posts: 1215
PostPosted: Sat Apr 12, 2014 11:15 pm Reply with quote
I'm so over Shinbo and his overexposure of late it's not even funny. Not sure what the fascination is with a director that pretty much looks like he's getting off to himself over and over with a checklist of trademark visual gimmicks and annoying characters every other season. It continues to baffle me how this guy got so popular and respected as creative when he seems to be anything but and it also baffles me how people still aren't tired of this schtick by now and even spend money on his shows in record numbers essentially begging the guy to remain stagnant and keep rehashing a style over and over again.

It's really all I can think about while watching Mekaku City Actors cause like with pretty much every SHAFT show there's nothing that stands out to me other than that checklist of visual styles anymore. How can it when it's so blatant and up in your face. Even the reviews for the site that's pretty much all they talk about and I just again have to ask what's the point of relying on a love it or hate it visual style that's more pressing than the shows content itself?
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Randomfart



Joined: 02 Mar 2014
Posts: 44
PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 1:55 am Reply with quote
Kaioshin_Sama wrote:
I'm so over Shinbo and his overexposure of late it's not even funny. Not sure what the fascination is with a director that pretty much looks like he's getting off to himself over and over with a checklist of trademark visual gimmicks and annoying characters every other season. It continues to baffle me how this guy got so popular and respected as creative when he seems to be anything but and it also baffles me how people still aren't tired of this schtick by now and even spend money on his shows in record numbers essentially begging the guy to remain stagnant and keep rehashing a style over and over again.

It's really all I can think about while watching Mekaku City Actors cause like with pretty much every SHAFT show there's nothing that stands out to me other than that checklist of visual styles anymore. How can it when it's so blatant and up in your face. Even the reviews for the site that's pretty much all they talk about and I just again have to ask what's the point of relying on a love it or hate it visual style that's more pressing than the shows content itself?

Well, I certainly do agree with your view on the show itself, even though I'm not familiar enough with anime directors to know any by name (with the exception of Miyazaki).
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Rederoin



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 1427
Location: Europa
PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:15 am Reply with quote
Quote:

entry #1487 in the "cute girls doing cute things" genre here

Remember when reviews did not use extreme hyperboles?
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4595
Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:55 am Reply with quote
Rederoin wrote:
Quote:

entry #1487 in the "cute girls doing cute things" genre here

Remember when reviews did not use extreme hyperboles?


Pepperidge Farm remembers.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 12:40 pm Reply with quote
rheiders wrote:
Mohawk52 wrote:
That's a disgraceful ripoff of Hatsune Miku I've seen yet.

I don't know if I'd call it a rip-off, since the series is based off the "Kagerou Project" series of Vocaloid songs in which Ene is "played by" Hatsune Miku...From the credits it looks like there's a Kagamine Len character too.
Okay I get it, a few "P"'s produced a couple of albums featuring IA and Miku inspired by and themed on this manga after reading a few chapters. I actually like a couple of the songs and I am actively searching for them. Looking at the first episode the character design is Miku-ish, but Ene's VA is real F&B. I wonder if they bothered to ask Crypton Future Media if they could use Miku's voice synth for this? I think it would have been even more "realistic" as an interactive computer programme and made a much better production IMHO, but I can live with that and I too look forward to this getting a release now. Cheers for that mate. Wink
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gedata



Joined: 04 May 2013
Posts: 615
PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 12:58 pm Reply with quote
So Knights of Sidonia was left behind? That's unfortunate :/
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 1:47 pm Reply with quote
Atelier Escha & Logy
The first episode was just about perfect. I only have two complaints. First, in the little battle we saw, we didn't get to see Escha whack anything with her staff. Second, they added hints of romance between Escha and Logy, which is disappointing and worrying, but apparently the game's true end does something with this too. It just hasn't appeared at all in the 1/3 of the game I've played and has historically not really been present in Atelier games. So I guess this may be an actual improvement by at least leading up to it properly. Anyway, while a bit disappointed in it's presence, I mainly just don't it to drag things down later on. On the positive side, the anime put a lot of love into Escha's tail.


Captain Earth's second episode was still great and Mahouka continues to be surprisingly okay (and also made anyone who tried to claim that Miyuki totally just admires her brother and doesn't have romantic interest in him look like an idiot) but I still fully expect the show to turn to shit sooner or later. Akuma no Riddle continues to be really good; setup is over and the rules have been established. Like I said before, it's a goofy anime deathgame setup, but it's doing very well in execution.



So, rough rankings (in tiers, I hate individual rankings aside from maybe a top 1-3):
Love Live, Fairy Tail, Akuma no Riddle, Captain Earth, Atelier Escha & Logy, Hitsugi no Chaika, and Soul Eater Not are all off to pretty great starts. Then I have Aikatsu and Happiness Charge Precure continuing, both of which are currently really good (Aikatsu hit a bit of a rough spot, but the last few episodes have been back to form).

Brinhildr is pretty solid. While I wouldn't put it quite in the same group as above, I'm pretty happy with it so far and if nothing else, it will give me a kind of dark, violent action series that I don't see very often. Oh, and it easily has my favorite OP of the season.

Kanojo Flag and Usagi Desu Ka are both decently entertaining, though Kanojo Flag has a much higher probability of falling apart and getting dropped.

WIXOSS, Mahouka, Nanana all leave a lot to be desired. I really want Nanana to be good, in particular maybe MC-kun's annoying aspects won't show up again... right? And WIXOSS could rebound. That one seems like the least likely to become a drop, even if it's bad.

Black Bullet and No Game, No Life are both almost certain drops within the next few episodes.


DmonHiro wrote:
Uhm, HitokiriShadow, Selector is HARDLY about the card game. That's like, the least important part of the show.


It's a fundamental element of the plot AND drama. Obviously the show can't and shouldn't spend the amount of time that YuGiOh and the like do on the card battles and every move they make. But as it stands, there's a ridiculous disconnect between what happens in the games and the viewer, and this is a problem for trying to dramatize anything related to what happens in the game.


Last edited by HitokiriShadow on Sun Apr 13, 2014 1:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Sun Apr 13, 2014 1:49 pm Reply with quote
gedata wrote:
So Knights of Sidonia was left behind? That's unfortunate :/


It'll be reviewed in the summer when it's legally available.
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