Forum - View topicWinter 2010 season postmortem
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4644 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Occasionally I think I'd like to look back at info on an entire season, see what ended up being the fan favories, which were the best, but searches basically just turn up season previews, not final synopses.
So here is a thread to look back on the shows ending this past season. Which were your favorites? Which were the worst? What were the disappointments? This is actually the first season I have ever tried to follow, I've always waited until a show was finished before. My favorite: Hanamaru Youchien / Hanamaru Kindergarten: It is one of the great feel-good series and is very funny. I really wish this show was continuing and is at the top of my wish list for an additional season or two. It has so many sweet and cute moments of kids being kids, adults being clueless and eccentric and moments of genuine emotion between characters. It plays with situational comedy as well as gag comedy and very cartoony fun. At the beginning of the season the worry was that it would be another Kodomo No Jikan, except it would take the highly innapropriate lolicon of that series to more the more disturbing level of toddler-con. Instead we were shown how the same situation can be handled appropriately and with genuine humor. They still play a little with some of the taboo subjects of anime, but don't treat them as pervert bait, but as something that has a reasoning behind it that isn't necessarily perverted. Yes, Sakura had a relationship with her school teacher and ended up pregnant but the result was true love and a loving family. Yes we have Tsuchida's sister crushing a bit on her brother, and Koume's older brother has maybe a bit more interest in his kindergartener sister than normal, but are these complexes or just extreme examples of siblings holding strong feelings for each other? You can even say that the series doesn't rule out an eventual relationship between Tsuchida and Anzu as completely preposterous, but you know that if anything were to happen it actually wouldn't happen until Anzu is grown. It would be a story of a man who sees a girl grow into a girl he could love not a story of a man who loves a child. As Sakura says "in ten years or so you could be a normal couple"- okay, normal by Sakura's standards. Also Good: Sora no Woto: I did not have a problem with it's "moe" factor, in fact I think it served the theme of the show well. This may basically be a war-torn and post-apocalyptic world of lost technology, war orphans and plague but friendship and community can survive and in fact is more important than ever. I think the makers of this show thought of this and realized one of the best ways to tell this story today was to use the symbol of friendship and comradery of the day, the moe girl squad. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun: ANd here we have the cute schoolgirl squad basically using super powers to thwart evil plots. A solid plot, an interesting world... occasionally poorly executed and cliched villainy. I want to see more of this world. Neither here nor there: Okay shows: Hidamari Sketch x ***: Okay, this was the weakest of this franchise so far. This was more of the same from previous seasons, pleasant stories of girls doing pleasant things. Because I mostly like this sort of thing I almost put this in the top section. Except, alot of the humor was lost, Yuno was too composed, MIyako not so crazy anymore, Hiro and Sae played things too straight (pun intentional). Plus they mostly did away with the novel anachronistic and literal "day-in-the life" story telling, in order to introduce two freshman girls- who unfortunately turn out to be rather bland. Even Shaft's creative design felt a little flat this time around. Ladies versus Butlers Just marathoned this series this weekend. It's a fine ecchi comedy, nothing for you to struggle with here. Boy meets girls, accidentally fondles her breasts, proceeds to accidentally do the same over and over, while also falling into many crotches, yet girls all like him because he is really a nice guy afterall. I was a bit surprised at how quickly I was able to watch this show, even with shows I like I tend to need to take breaks more often. Chu-bra: I wish this ended up better, the show could never decid what it wanted to do. DId it want to be shameless middle-school fanservice comedy? Did it want to be a moe girl tale of friendship? Did it want to deal with dramatic storylines and take its naughty subject seriously as a coming of age issue? It touched on all of these but commited to none and mostly succeeded in being boring and forgettable. It also annoyingly set up the show for a second season by leaving almost everything unresolved... but it definitely doesn't need a second season. Did not like: Omamori Himari: I really wish I hadn't watched as much of this show as I did. (first 7 + last episode to confirm my suspicions) Every character is a stock character, every situation is painfully predicatable. Animation is nothing to be impressed about and the rampant fan service was poorly executed (for instance: loli-looking Rei-clone rubs naked body on seriously injured hero in order to heal him with her water based demon powers... are you supposed to be aroused by 12-year old looking naked girl or concerned for critically wounded character?.... or just disturbed by every aspect?) I also ended up not finishing Tegami Bachi/Letter Bee but that was more because I forgot about about than because I hated it... yet I don't really feel compelled to finish it anytime soon either. Last edited by Spastic Minnow on Sun Nov 28, 2010 11:50 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 25601 |
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Good idea for a thread! I will restrict my comments to only those shows that started in the Winter season as opposed to shows that started in the fall and continued in the winter.
I watched (or will shortly finish watching) in their entirety the following shows: Baka to Test to Shōkanjū, Chu-Bra!!, Cobra the Animation, Dance in the Vampire Bund, Durarara!!, Hanamaru Kindergarten, Ladies vs Butlers!, Ōkamikakushi, Omamori Himari, Seikon no Qwaser, and So-Ra-No-Wo-To. I'm also watching Katanagatari but it only broadcasts once per month and only the first three eppies have appeared, so all I will say about it is that I'm really digging it so far. My Surprise Fave: Sora no Woto. I say surprise because I wouldn't have expected this. This show help me discover my hitherto undiscovered inner moe-blob. I only watched two eppies of K-ON! and one of the things that turned me off were the squiggly character designs. Sora has virtually the exact same designs, yet for some reason I really liked them this time out. I really loved the background art for this show - that cool European fortress/town that provided the main setting was so beautifully rendered that I want to go visit it. I loved all the characters and their interaction: paternal Rio, maternal Felicia and their "children": sweet and innocent Kanata, bossy-pants Kureha and quiet, sleepy Noel. Normally, slow-paced shows where nothing much happens drive me crazy, but I just fell into the groove of Sora's gentle, comedic vibe. I was not a big fan of the finale which felt rushed, was filled with implausibility and tried to cash in what I felt were unearned emotional responses. Still, enough good had proceeded that that it didn't dislodge it from my season favourite status. Whoa, I've kind of shot my wad with this post. I'll come back later and make comments about the other shows. |
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LaFreccia
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My absolute fave this season: Durarara!! This show has an awesome cast of characters, some messed up plot twists, and great music and art. I can't wait for the second half to start in April.
Another show I really enjoyed: Nodame Cantabile - Finale. It was a real treat that this franchise got the conclusion it deserved. Although not quite as excellent as the first season, this third, and final, season managed to return to some of the feeling that hooked me in the first place. Although there were several shows I checked out then dropped, the one show that I stubbornly watched all the way to the end, but in hindsight wish I had given up on after episode two was Sora no Woto. I just expected it would be ... more interesting. That's not to say that there were no good episodes, or there were no interesting ideas. But in the end I thought it was uneven, and the potential of the world hinted at in flashbacks and what not was more interesting than the main characters. |
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wandering-dreamer
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So, is this for any show that was airing during the Winter season? Since I only started Durarara during the Winter season but I had four fall shows also airing.
So for Durarara, I had high hopes for the show since I enjoyed Baccano and the plot synopsis reminded me of the video game The World Ends With You. It did not disappoint and, even being heavily spoiled by accident, the twists still managed to catch me off guard and keep me tearing my hair out waiting for the next episode. I already know this is going to be a series to re-watch when I'm done so I can watch a few of the plot threads fully unfold that surprised me in the first viewing. Hoping the second part keeps up the awesomeness! |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 25601 |
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Having started with my fav show of the winter season, I'm gonna get all TMoHS non-linear broadcast orderish and immediately jump to my...
Bottom of the Barrel Baka to Test to Shōkanjū - It's not a bad show and there are usually a couple of things that crack me up per episode, but basically I'm just not a huge fan of "gag" shows. Especially gag shows that relentlessly hammer the same 5 or 6 gags into the ground each eppie. Also, E-Cup Onii-sama/Bro-con was introduced CRIMINALLY late (eppie 9). With-holding her magnificent funbags until then is just...wrong. Chu-Bra!! - Based on its premise (middle schoolgirl wants to start up Underwear Club), I assumed this show was going to be a tawdry ecchi paradise that would make me ashamed to be a human being for even being aware of its existence, not to mention watching it. Alas, it actually turned out to be kind of a sweet, but unfortunately banal show. The only time (for me anyway) that the show edged into squicky territory was with the Kiyono character, who truly did seem to be a Lolita (as opposed to a loli) in the Nabokovian sense: a young girl who seemed to know more about, er, "life" than she should. I actually thought they were going to spoiler[pull a reversal with her character, i.e. make her seem like she was too worldly but then reveal that it was all a facade and she really was naive underneath. They never did that, but they never provided real "proof" that she was advanced as she seemed to be, either.] The final episode surprised me a bit by being somewhat effective emotionally, but yeah, overall a very forgettable show. Ōkamikakushi - Like a lot of people, I guess I was hoping for a When They Cry level of awesomeness and the show fell several rungs below that standard. The so-called "mystery" of the town was obvious pretty early on and so, as a viewer, you were put in the position of having to wait for the series' "revelations" to catch up with you - which is never good. A compelling story line just never really clicked in, although I was dragged along by a curiosity over how it would all end up. Frankly, it wasn't worth it. But at least it had a fairly funny and entertaining post-finale episode (since the true series arc ended in eppie 11). Cobra the Animation - Even at only 13 episodes this became a slog for me. Again, not that it was a bad show, it just didn't connect with me personally. I kinda dug the retro design, but the episodic nature of the series and the fact that I didn't particularly attach myself to Cobra as a character kept me at arm's length. These are all shows that I should have dropped and I vow for all successive seasons to be more hard-nosed in culling my viewing herd. Last edited by Blood- on Mon Mar 29, 2010 9:26 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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menelvagor
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I watched Railgun this season and was generally happy with how the season turned out. The occasional extremely epic battle, characters weren't ground breaking but definitely fun. Got out of it exactly what I had hoped. My only complaint would be, as Spastic Minnow said, the
Kimi ni Todoke, what can I say. One episode left, but regardless of how it ends, lets just say that it was 20 or so odd minutes of happy time out of my week for the last few months. I'm sure it would be slow for those with less patience [not a bad thing necessarily], but it is endlessly genuine. Could have gone without so many random flashbacks. The watercolor-ish background style was beautiful and perfect for the spaced out vibe of the show in general. I intend to marathon So-Ra-No-Wo-To as soon as I have a free weekend. yay. Last edited by menelvagor on Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:23 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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garfield15
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Cool idea for a thread. We should do this every season.
Well, first of all, Durarara was my fave this season but that's not over yet so my number 2 is Hanamaru Kindergarten because everything about that show worked. It was fun and innocent with just enough flair and references for the otaku. Plus it was moe but like what moe should be...or something like that. My surprise hit was BakaTest. I thought it would be generic harem comedy bull but it turned out to be tons of fun! I looked forward to it every week. (It also has the honor of being the third comedy anime I've really laughed out loud at. The other two being Gintama and Seto no Hanayome) Vampire Bund is "meh" so far. Not gonna get into that now. I know a lot of people disliked SoRaNoWoTo. but I enjoyed it. I enjoy music focus shows anyway and the slice of life genre. A guilty pleasure has been Seikon no Qwaser. I know, I know but it...it's really not all that crappy. It's campy and fanservicey as hell but it's got a half-decent plot and it's one I'm kind of interested in. Winter 09 was an alright season. There wasn't a lot out but the ones that were good were good |
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Niomo
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As I am tired, I'm just going to list the shows I saw in order of goodness in my eyes. I'll probably add some reason anyways as I go...just to make myself feel cool.
Durarararararara!! - /handlebars VROOM VROOM VROOM! Railgun - I was amazed to see how well the show was able to put a lot of the pieces together. Seemingly meaningless things, like a split second shot of some random crook's MP3 player in episode 1, ended up allowing you to realize that the plot was much larger and longer than you'd expect. I enjoyed the show greatly, and I hope there is another season. Hanamaru Kindergarten - It's cute. It's funny. It was a great show that I originally didn't want to watch because "It's stupid kids doing things, why the hell would I want to watch that." And then I did. There's something hypnotizing about little kids declaring their love for 20 year olds. Ladies vs Butlers! - Honestly, this is probably my favorite of the season, just on how much I enjoyed and laughed at each episode. I impatiently awaited each week's episode more so than Durarara. but in terms of being a good show, it did ok. Kotabo. - This sleeper show was rated pretty low before the last two episodes. And then BAM. It became great. As I said in it's thread. The beginning was interesting and they set up the plot well. The middle was kinda boring, although I'd say that most of the episodes helped to push the plot in some way. And then the end. spoiler[A "everyone wins" kind of ending was exactly what the show needed, and I am glad to see they pulled it off pretty well. ] Sora No Woto - minus the "I GOTA PEEEEEEE" Episode, I found the show to be entertaining for most of the episodes, although the darker more plot devoted ones were usually better. but I suppose that was part of the point of the show. It was an attempt to put moe into a more action-ish/plot drive atmosphere. The presentation it's part of (The Power of Anime) has a second part (Sora was part 1) for next season, so I'll see if they break the moe boundary even more. Dance in the Vampire Bund - I think that if the entire show was what the last 2-3 episode were (eg not introduction lolvampires at school), it would have been higher rated. Kimi No Todake - If you had told me back when I first saw Kimi that I would rate it so low, I'd slap you with a trout. However, as Kimi went on and on and on without really DOING anything, I began to question if I had trapped myself in an entire series about "Endless 8" I felt that Sawako took FAR too long to realize how a normal person acts with friends (Hell, I'd probably suggest she still doesn't...ex: CAN I HANG OUT WITH YOU??) Because of that, it falls down the list. Baka to Test... - An incredibly funny show...but they kept repeating their jokes. Funny jokes were still funny by the time the last episode came around, but they were still old jokes. Ookami Kakushi - It wasn't Higurashi. The end. Omari Himari - Himari had a chance to be good. But then Yuto summoned his inner hippy for 90% of the show and I got bored fast. The plot is there to be a good show, but since it tended to focus on the harem aspect more than the demon aspect, I felt like it was missing something. Oh well. Chu-Bra! - I really don't know why I watched this one. If I ever have a daughter, she's watching this show as soon as she needs bras. I learned a lot...sadly 
Other: Fairy Tail - As with most Naruto/One Piece length shows, it's impossible to compare the show with the other shows for the season. The studio knows they have 290384029348290348290384 episodes to do whatever they want and can take their time/put in fillers. Qwaser - There are no words to describe how bad that show is. I watch for Hirano Aya. Too bad her character is fucked up! Well I think that's everything. |
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Ggultra2764
 Posts: 4052 Location: New York state. |
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Final thoughts of what I've seen this season:
I dropped watch of Sora no Woto after 4 episodes thanks to the blurring of moeblob and military drama which didn't really seem to blend well with me. Dance in the Vampire Bund is a mixed bag title that hooked me for its premise of Mina trying to create a settlement for vampires though I found myself turned off by some bits that seemed pasted in for shock and squick value (spoiler[Shota-con class prez being a big culprit]) and I question the entire point of the show's final arc at its attempts of drama. Nodame Cantabile: Finale felt no different from the second season in terms of pacing for its first half. But it slowed down and provided smoother story development later on though the show's decision to continue focusing more on the character relationships than how music affects their lives (which had me giddy for Season #1) still tore me up. Durarara! was my best watch for this season with its style, unique characters and enough twists in plot to keep me hooked on the show, which I plan to continue watching into spring since the show's still ongoing. |
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Ausdoerrt
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You must be a masochist then 
I ended up following only a handful of shows this season. Nodame was pretty as expected, I wasn't expecting anything less. Dance in the Vampire bund is being somewhat average, although I still like the artwork and the last few episode's direction. Durarara! has been ups and downs for me, but overall enjoyable. I'm still at ep.4, need to catch up sometime. Sora no Woto was dropped at ep. 2 when it became obvious that there aren't plans to move it too far away from K-On! Ookami Kakushi was dropped immediately after the crappy ep. 1. From what I hear, that was the right decision. Railgun was dropped after about ep.3 when it became clear that the show is mostly about fanservice and not the story. Index was mediocre already, Railgun failed to improve. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Huh. I actually didn't end up watching a thing this season. I'll probably get around to Durarara! eventually though.
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Mister V
 Posts: 1000 |
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Well, I guess it's my first full season here on ANN, so that's something to celebrate. Korekaramo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
(I also support starting a thread like this after every season) Nothing unexpected in a major way. Durarara is definitely at the top. Not like it has any serious competition. Dance in the Vampire Bund is in the "got better" category, definitely, even though my expectations were not high. Sora no Woto is a more complicated case. I was going to skip it entirely, but started and kept on watching. Can't say it wasn't enjoyable, but did not rise above expectations. BakaTest turned out to be that type of show where you can just turn off your brain and get a few laughs. The only surprise. Qwaser: waiting for the uncensored version, otherwise there's no point in it. Ookamikakushi: I saw the first episode, then deleted it and set my cleaner prog to wipe the free space, because I don't want to see anything like that again. Revolting. Kimi ni Todoke: ended up dropping it because I didn't like the style switches, the rosy romance, etc. Nodame's final series is a nice bonus. |
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Niomo
Posts: 516 |
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We must have watched entirely different shows, because there was no fan service in Railgun at all. It was entirely plot driven. edit: Thinking back, there was a scene in the first episode or two of some lolgroping. But after I'd say episode 3 (oh hey look at that), they removed that aspect completely. Personally, I give any show 5 episodes to impress me. Railgun did, give it another shot. You'll be surprised. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 25601 |
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To finish up my Winter Wrap-up:
Liking But Not Loving Category Durarara!! - I know some people have multi-Os while watching this one and I really would like to like it more, but it's keeping me at bay. I have enjoyed the last few eppies more than the opening batch, once they switched to ongoing story mode as opposed to character introduction mode. There have been some very cool things in it and it looks awesome, but overall, so far, the show just isn't manufacturing the love from me. I should mention I was pretty "meh" about Baccano! as well. I think part of the problem is that I don't like/don't care about a lot of the characters (just like in Baccano!) so it's hard for me to get revved up. I like Celty, Big Boobed Glasses Girl (who is a minor character) and Ryuugamine and that's pretty much it. Izaya the A-hole doesn't exert much fascination for me, although he seems to be a fan fave. It's funny, I recognize that Durarara!! is a "better" show than the ones I'm about to list below, but I have to say I find all the ones below more entertaining and easier to watch. The Solids By "solid" I mean the shows deliver fairly reliable entertainment value. They tend not to scale the heights of ultimate awesomeness, but week in and week out I get my anime jollies from them. In no particular order: Dance in the Vampire Bund - SHAFT knows how to make the eye candy, that's for sure. This one got off to a limp start for me with a TV game show episode that tested my patience. But I dig the Loli-vamp and her werewolf bodyguard/love interest set-up and just the whole vampire thing in general. Seikon no Qwaser - I've been catching the uncensored eppies as they become available. This show calls to my not-so-inner perv in a big way. It's got some cool action, some decent comedy and lots of wrongness. Blood- likey. Ladies vs. Butlers! - I didn't hold out much hope for this one after seeing the first eppie, but it gradually won me over. Some relatively strong ecchi content didn't hurt, but there were a couple of other compensations, as well. The series introduced me to a new species of Anime Childhood Friend I have not encountered before: The Evil Schemer. Well, she wasn't really evil, but she loved to make Our Usual Banal Harem Lead's life miserable by effing with his mind (even though she has a crush on him, of course). But my fave, fave, fave character from the series who we just didn't get to see enough of, was the school's highly immature principal. The gag with her is that although she is an adult, her mind is perpetually stuck in teenager mode, causing her to come up with random highly inappropriate/dangerous ideas for the students. But my favourite memory of her was an eppie where she was overcome with ennui - there was a shot of her lying on her side on the floor with her back to us that so absolutely and beautifully conveyed the abyss of teenage boredom that I had to laugh. She deserves her own show. Omamori Himari - nothing new, nothing special but I liked it. Big boobed girl with cat ears = instant boneage for me. Oops, TMI? Anime seems to have a colossal problem devising a non-boring harem lead and OH was no exception, but that's just a given, I guess. 12 episodes was the right length for this show, but I'd watch a second season. |
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ninjapet
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Hanamaru Kindergarten - this show was just so cute. It was a fun watch to say the least. I wish there was a second season that's all I can say.
Durarara! I'm enjoying it so far. I love the style it's in. It's not as fast paced as Baccano! was but you can follow the plot kind of at least. Plus the characters are interesting and like Niomo said. /handlebars VROOM VROOM VROOM! I loved that part. 
Baka to Test I've seen half of it so far. The troll subs most of the season just turned me off. When Funi got the rights I tried watching there subs. I made it to episode 7 and I don't think I'll be watching any more till a dub / DVD release comes out. Ookami Kakushi - My full episode to episode reactions are on the discussion thread. Over all it was "meh" Higurashi pulled stuff like this off much better, and with more loli killing and crazy faces. Makes me wonder how Studio Deen would have handled it. That's it really I wanted to watch more but I just kind of gave up with most shows this season. |
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