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The Summer 2014 Anime Preview Guide


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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 6:41 pm Reply with quote
Oh, I forgot about the Sengoku Basara sequel. So yeah, we have two incidences this season.

And I suspect that getchman is probably correct.
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Videogamep



Joined: 10 Jun 2014
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 9:47 pm Reply with quote
It seemed like his preview was more him making fun of the first season than giving the show he was supposed to preview a fair chance.
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Barbobot



Joined: 06 Feb 2007
Posts: 460
PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:00 pm Reply with quote
ob1foru wrote:
Zac Bertschy has to be the worst "previewer" I've ever read.

But hey there's a second review under his so, it must be OK to have his garbage first right?

That is the tone of your "preview" Zac. When is ANN going to realize they're supposed to be giving a neutral narrative on anime on the horizon without injecting their own personal opinions which turn "previews" into "reviews."

You might as well rewrite the "headline" now and echo that statement. You're basically "reviewing" the first episode and making rating judgments on content based solely upon the first episode delivery.

But hey, Zac Bertschy works for a site that gets hundreds of thousands of hits so what do I know? After all, Zac Bertschy is supposed to be on the cutting edge of this and I'm just a lowly "member" which can give more objectivity off a homemade blog then he can. Rolling Eyes


So all you want is a synopsis of the first episodes then. Gotcha.
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Cyclone1993



Joined: 05 Jul 2011
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:19 pm Reply with quote
I'm probably way behind on posting what I'm watching this season, but hey, no time like the present!

Glasslip- As always, a very pretty show from PA Works. The first episode however was probably one of the vaguest first episodes of an anime I've seen in a long time. The second episode explained things a bit better. I expect lots of feels with this one.

Space Dandy 2- The first episode of this show was great, quite possibly one of the best of the whole series. The second episode, was sort of a hit or miss. I enjoyed it though. Like others have said, Space Dandy is just a whole heaping of fun.

Aldnoah.Zero- The series I was looking forward to most this season. It's been great so far. Very nice looking, and with some great music as well. I'm looking forward to where this series is going to go.

Hanayamata- Another series I got pumped for before the season started. I liked the colors they used with it. I don't really know what the future holds for this series, but I'll be checking it out. The characters and their interactions seem pretty interesting. The big question is whether it will stay focused on dancing, or become more of a slice of life.

Majimoji Rurumo- I thought Rurumo prior to the start of the season, and she certainly is. However, the rest of the show is in "meh" territory. But I feel like the show has potential. It might end up like a perverted version of the Fairly Odd Parents (which is something I hope happens) But I'll be watching the rest regardless.

Encouragement of Climb 2- I had no intention of watching this series, since I had never seen the first season. But then I remembered each episode was only 3 minutes...so 64 min later I was ready for the second season. I thought the longer run time might ruin it, but I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked out. Highly charming show, and I'm glad its two cour.

Invaders of the Rokujyoma- I'm glad they introduced all the characters at once. It saves time with avoiding all of the intro episodes. The character designs look nice, and at this point it doesn't seem like a harem. Although that certainly is coming. I like to have a harem show every once in a while, so I'm glad this one is rather unique in that regard.

I have several other shows I plan on watching once a few more episodes are out. They are probably the more serious ones, since I think those types of shows are best in a marathon while comedies and slice of life work well on a weekly basis.

Zankyu no Terror
Prisma Illya 2
Sailor Moon Crystal
Free Eternal Summer

Are all definites. Will probably watch Akame ga Kill, Argevollen Tokyo Ghoul, and Tokyo ESP as well. But I'll wait and see.
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Plasmaeclipse



Joined: 11 Apr 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 12:36 am Reply with quote
ob1foru wrote:
Zac Bertschy has to be the worst "previewer" I've ever read.

But hey there's a second review under his so, it must be OK to have his garbage first right?

That is the tone of your "preview" Zac. When is ANN going to realize they're supposed to be giving a neutral narrative on anime on the horizon without injecting their own personal opinions which turn "previews" into "reviews."

You might as well rewrite the "headline" now and echo that statement. You're basically "reviewing" the first episode and making rating judgments on content based solely upon the first episode delivery.

But hey, Zac Bertschy works for a site that gets hundreds of thousands of hits so what do I know? After all, Zac Bertschy is supposed to be on the cutting edge of this and I'm just a lowly "member" which can give more objectivity off a homemade blog then he can. Rolling Eyes


as a previous commenter noted, so you want a robotic paragraph long summary of the first episodes?

The reason is called a preview guide is because it's ONLY covering the first episode. It's just a taste, a PREVIEW of what is to come. This is how the process works. The writers watch an episode of X show. They take whatever feelings or impressions they have of the first episode, type it up and rate it for us ANN goers to see. We can then choose to either heed or ignore their opinions if we care that much, as well as comment discuss ect. What good is a first impression going to be if they just post a paragraph long summary of the series.A varied personal first impression tells me way more than a blub describing a series. All your doing is arguing semantics and your doing it rather poorly. The preview guide functions fine as it is and accomplishes what it's meant to, which is to give us a perspective on whatever's new this season and perhaps drive us towards the good/bad. If you don't like the writers themselves that's your problem and if all 6 varying opinions rub you the wrong way, and you don't feel inclined to debate with them then you might as well just pack up and go to a different site.

Quote:
After all, Zac Bertschy is supposed to be on the cutting edge of this and I'm just a lowly "member" which can give more objectivity off a homemade blog then he can. Rolling Eyes


pffftAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *stops to breath* AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Your joking right? Please tell me you're joking.

Pretty much any first impression or review is going to be completely subjective almost all places. The most common thread you'll likely find is the name of the work in question and who made it. I've read planty of blog reviews on independent sites, my anime list and even some youtube reviews. They ALL have some level of bias in one way or another. What one person can find amazing another can find to be trash. Sure there may be a general consensus big enough to appear objective but that just means that a lot of people happen to agree. If you went and made your own blog to review anime it'd be just as biased and subjective as any other review on the internet.

Your complaint basically boils down to "Why the fudge do you ANN not-so-nice-people have to have personalities? Why can't you just mechanically report on the new seasons, that'll inform me much more."
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Key
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 1:19 am Reply with quote
A couple more second episode thoughts:

Akame ga KILL! - The elements presented are mostly looking pretty conventional for shonen action series, but one line caught my attention and may keep me watching the series. When the protagonist Tatsumi tries to pitch the "we're assassins of justice!" line, the rest of Night Raid laughs and one replies with a grim smile, "no matter how you spin it, we commit murder." I like that the series is being so blunt and up-front about it, and that the series isn't pulling its punches about having the protagonist actually kill people. The series is going to have to be careful with its balancing act there, but I'm curious to see if it can pull that off.

Monthly Girls' Noaki-kun - The second episode is at least as funny as the first, which is saying something, and the new character introduced is a gem. Rarely before has shojo romance been so delightfully skewered. It gets one of my top recommendations for the season.
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 2:42 am Reply with quote
Key wrote:
The last currently-scheduled streaming debut (Nobunaga Concerto) is late Tuesday night U.S. time, so Zac will probably close the Guide out no later than Wednesday.

You already mentioned Sengoku, but Crunchy should still have Bladedance of Elementalers. Though that debuts on Thursday(16/7) so it doesn't affect this guide I suppose.
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Gina Szanboti



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PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:10 am Reply with quote
I was pretty meh about the first episode of Nozaki-kun (did not find the bike nearly as hilarious as everyone else seemed to), but the second one had me laughing throughout, so if they can keep that up, I guess I'm sold.
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lossthief
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:33 am Reply with quote
Blanchimont wrote:
You already mentioned Sengoku, but Crunchy should still have Bladedance of Elementalers. Though that debuts on Thursday(16/7) so it doesn't affect this guide I suppose.


Bladedance actually debuts later today, according to Crunchyroll.
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ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:47 am Reply with quote
Key wrote:


Akame ga KILL! - The elements presented are mostly looking pretty conventional for shonen action series, but one line caught my attention and may keep me watching the series. When the protagonist Tatsumi tries to pitch the "we're assassins of justice!" line, the rest of Night Raid laughs and one replies with a grim smile, "no matter how you spin it, we commit murder." I like that the series is being so blunt and up-front about it, and that the series isn't pulling its punches about having the protagonist actually kill people. The series is going to have to be careful with its balancing act there, but I'm curious to see if it can pull that off.



Aside from the stupid gay joke, which I thought was just another in a LONG line of totally pointless instances of casual jokes about gay men (I suppose the demographics of anime make lesbian characters attractive, which is why I make the distinction), I do think that Akame ga Kill is the top show right now from this season. It has, by far, the best hook - i.e. that the "monsters" and/or "demons" being fought against are the "1%ers" of the society, rather than general criminal gangs or youma.

I thought the show was incredibly smart in how it introduced the MC as well, by cutting him (and by extension us) down right from the get-go spoiler[via killing off his friends. Normally a shounen show would have the friends or traveling companions spend some time becoming stronger with him, and they usually wouldn't be killed off right away but might become antagonists or love interest or something. But here, they just kill them (in such brutal fashion too)] which I think sets the stage for the MC's descent into darkness (assuming he will go that path before the end - and given that this show is about assassination and we've already seen them acknowledge that they are murderers, I would expect them to explore that).

I also like the fact that the assassins are pretty self-aware of what they do. Like you said, they don't pretend that they are fighting for justice, even though they claim to want to "clean out the trash" of society. I expect that there will be some kind of plot twist in regard to what the true motivations of their boss is at some point, which will probably be a lot of fun to watch. Right now, this is going to be the show I am most eager for each week.
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SilverTalon01



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PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 3:22 pm Reply with quote
ob1foru wrote:
Zac Bertschy has to be the worst "previewer" I've ever read.

But hey there's a second review under his so, it must be OK to have his garbage first right?


He gave 3 serious reviews and 1 not. So I'm assuming your anger is over the Momokyun one?

And I think the fact that he gave a ridiculous review for a ridiculous show actually works. Now I'm not talking about a show being good or bad, its a show with a ridiculous concept that doesn't take itself seriously at all... so that Zac would do the same for his review, I found quite fitting.

He likes stuff and hates stuff, and I often disagree. However as even his ridiculous review of Momokyun clearly gave the reasons for his opinion, I can't see any reason for anyone to be as distressed as you seem to be about his review of first episodes.
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 11:10 pm Reply with quote
Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance
This quite possibly the most creatively bankrupt anime I've ever seen. The only remotely decent part of the episode was the fight before the opening. After that it just played out in the dullest, paint-by-numbers way possible and the first five minutes covered a large portion of everything I dislike in anime. It almost became a little compelling to see how many worn out cliches it could stuff in in the laziest ways possible. When the two girls started fighting over MC-dude and one pressed her boobs into his arm, I felt like the show just painted in a template for that exact scene. And then the maid shows up and trips into the guy in exactly the beat you would expect. Dragonar showed more promise than this and Momokyun felt more inspired. This is absolute garbage.

Francesca
I watched a raw just to confirm that it existed, since I had heard absolutely nothing about it. It's about zombies or something and it sure is a thing that exists. I have zero interest in watching further.

Tokyo ESP
The first episode was basically a bunch of violence and explosions and told us little about the actual characters we'll be following, or even the world beyond that it has espers. But the fights were well done and it made me interested in watching more.


Rokujouma no Shinryakusha
I ended up watching about the first 9 minutes and then finishing it the next day. I ended up remembering absolutely nothing about those first 9 minutes. And it didn't seem to matter much for the rest. The show is dumb, but once it started rolling out the haremettes, it was a fun kind of dumb. I expected to drop this in one episode, but surprisingly, I'll be watching more. Pretty low on the list for the season though.



I think that covers the last of the first episodes I tried this season. As for notable episode 2s...
Hanayamata continues to impress and is basically heavily concentrated happiness being injected directly into my brain. Nozakikun's second episode was still very good and I particularly loved Yuzuki.
It turn's out that Sabagebu's actual premise is "Momoka (the main character) is a gigantic asshole to everyone" and the 2nd episode was pretty hilarious. Well, the first and last segments anyway. I was less enthused about the middle one.
I hated SAO by the time the first season ended, but the 2nd episode of the new season is actually pretty great. Not coincidentally, Kirito was almost entirely absent from it.
I am interested in where Aldnoah Zero is going, but the 2nd episode suffered from the most notable villain being cartoonishly evil.
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kevinx59



Joined: 27 Jan 2012
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 11:55 pm Reply with quote
Kinda late, but I finally finished checking out all that I was interested in.
-Argevollen Not amazing, but I liked it. I liked the military perspective, and the robot fighting was more realistic than most other mecha series.
-Sailor Moon Have never seen the original (like others have said, as a kid I thought it was too girly for me when it was airing), so I have no preconceptions. It was good, not great. The animation wasn't spectacular, but it was still a step above Toei's usual work, the art was nice, and some of the images of Usagi standing against the moonlight are beautiful. Plus at 2 episodes a month, I should have no problem keeping up.
-Akame ga Kill Now that was pretty awesome. I found it funny, and I thought the action scenes were bloody good. Definitely gonna watch more.
-Hanayamata Was almost going to skip this, but I changed my mind at the last minute after seeing a trailer. Glad I did, as I really liked the first episode. Madhouse's animation is impressive, I loved the goofy faces, the opening and ending were catchy, and it was all around cute and entertaining. Only complaint is the character designs: Hana's fangs are kinda cute, but her mouth and eyes/eyebrows look odd. Watching ep. 2 at this moment.
-Sabagebu Stupidly amusing, the first episode was hilarious. Episode 2 was funny as well. The main girl was surprisingly sadistic, which I found pretty interesting. I'm a sucker for military girl shows, and this one looks like one I'm sticking with. Loved the hardcore survival shop, and the random explosions and jungle backdrop. Still can't believe this is based on a shojo manga though.
-Encouragement of Climb
Cyclone1993 wrote:

Encouragement of Climb 2- I had no intention of watching this series, since I had never seen the first season. But then I remembered each episode was only 3 minutes...so 64 min later I was ready for the second season.
.
I did the exact same thing, and I am glad I did. Its nothing amazing, but its a very relaxing, cute little series with some beautiful nature scenes.
-Tokyo ESP Just watched the first episode today, and really enjoyed it. Just a lot of badass crazy action, and, like Akame Ga Kill, bloody good. Didn't mind the lack of exposition, I was too entertained by the fighting. Plus, I really enjoyed all the Ga-Rei Zero cameos and shout-outs(then again, I really loved Ga Rei)

As for the rest of the season, didn't watch SAO, and have no intention of seeing it, so a pass to season 2. Same with Free!. Saw Black Butler, but didn't like it enough to check out the sequels. Was thinking of checking Glasslip out, but I don't like P.A. Works, and reading some of the comments on the thread I think I can safely skip it. May get around to watching Illya one of these days. And I saw my first Space Dandy episode with the season two premier on Toonami, (at my hotel during AX) and it was hilarious. Depressed Dandy, and that creepy meowing robot in particular, had me and all my friends cracking up.

BTW, Terror in Resonance is one of the season's noitamina offerings, but what is the other?
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:09 am Reply with quote
kevinx59 wrote:
BTW, Terror in Resonance is one of the season's noitamina offerings, but what is the other?


That would be the Psycho-Pass re-run.
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jymmy



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PostPosted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 1:17 am Reply with quote
Well, unless I'm mistaken, Blade Dance is the last premiere. (Well, there's Minarai Diva, but I'm guessing that's not going to get a lot of coverage.)

The shows I'm impressed with the most so far are Barakamon, Zankyou no Terror and Nozaki-kun. I'm interested in seeing where Aldnoah.Zero goes, as well.
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