Forum - View topicThe Stream - Swim City
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Congratulations on the PhD, Bamboo! That is an incredible accomplishment. I am patting myself on the back for keeping up with seven shows this season, I have no idea how anyone could watch, let alone review, 20+ anime series. Also an incredible accomplishment (although that "Doctor" title in front of your name will probably impress more people!)
I really missed The Stream, by the way. Glad it's back! 1. Watamote: this show gives me feels! I just want to reach through the screen, grab Tomoko, wrap her in a hug and tell her parents to get her a therapist. Is this what moe feels like? Next season: Tomoko goes to group therapy! 2. Silver Spoon: The Omnivores Dilemma: The Anime. (I also love Hachiken's struggle to distinguish himself from his family and find a place in the world). 2. (Tied) The Eccentric Family : A sexy woman threatens a cute animal, but done in a much more thoughtful and effective way than Dog & Scissors could ever dream to do. The visuals are stunning, too. 4. Attack on Titan: When the pacing is good, it's an edge-of-your seat survival thriller. When it's bad, it's boring. The music is usually great, though. 5. Free!: This show is over-the-top, ridiculous, colorful, fanservice filled, occasionally laugh out loud funny and should never, under any circumstances, be taken seriously. Just sit back like Gou and enjoy the show! 6. Genshiken: The Next Generation: Patrick Stewart should play Hato in the live action adaptation! Um, Hato is intriguing, but I think the show has dragged a bit by focusing almost exclusively on her and not more equally on the ensemble. Madarame has grown a quite a bit and seems like a great guy all around, and I agree that it's nice to see him as a better developed, three-dimensional character (I've only seen up to ep 8 as of writing this). 7. Blood Lad: The humor, atmosphere, and characters are fun, but it felt like a bunch of tropes spliced together without a clear direction. The plot kept shifting and as of ep 10, the final ep, I feel like it's just getting started, if it could keep its momentum. Disappointing. Not as disappointing as Problem Children are Coming from Another World, Aren't They?, which I felt had similar issues with plotting and focus (and even more issues with the whole thing feeling like it ended in the middle of a story) but disappointing nonetheless. I really gotta watch Gatchaman Crowds, now, don't I? I'm very curious what all the hype is about... |
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bonbonsrus
 Posts: 1537 Location: Michigan, USA |
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Bamboo, I have to say it just so you know..I have been meaning to get around to watching Space Brothers for awhile, but my anime load ha always been pretty heavy, so I never started it...until the last Stream came out. Yes, I am only at ep.35 so far, but with everything else I am watching I think I am catching up at a good pace. It was specifically your column that made me pick it up even though it was at a daunting episode count. Thank you.
I do love reading this as we agree on so many of the shows, but the one difference I had specifically was Servant and Service. I have grown to like it more and more as it goes on instead of less. I wasn't originally as sold on it as I am now, but I am solidly in the I like it camp. Certainly better than several other of the shows I am watching. Thanks for the great article, it didn't cause me to pick up anything I wasn't already watching this week (I am not watching BroCon, Danganronpa or Hyperdemension Neptunia, and I dropped Fate and Gifu as I didn't like them) |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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Good to have the column back, I always enjoy the discussion this column provokes.
In spite of Summer being infamious for being a generally slow season, I'm watching quite a lot of shows right now and enjoying most of them greatly. 1. It's a rare occassion that I agree with Bamboo, but I too think Uchouten Kazoku is the best of this season. The initial episodes didn't seem to offer much apart from Yasaburo's fantastic charisma, but as this melancholic story about family and honor started developping -especially the last three or four episodes-, the cast has become incredibly endearing, and their story and quiet struggles have become very engaging and heart-tugging. It's my most look-forward to series of this season, without question 2. On a tie for second place, I'd have, surprisingly, Attack on Titan and Free!. AoT continues to be cool and exciting, the latest arc has kept me at the edge of my seat constantly and I think the pace has recovered immensely after the drag that the final two episodes of the Trost arc were. It's also done a pretty good job showing a bit more about its really wide cast -especially Jean, Levi and Erwin-. My only complaint is that, as baddass and amazing as she is, Mikasa has become sort of a one-track-record and her fixation with Eren is starting to rub me the wrong way. I really hope there's more in store for her character than being Eren's bodyguard forever and ever. Free! on the other hand is a lot more than I expected it to be. It's not like it's the first female oriented show ever made and we've already seen a lot of crappy ones out there, so I was completely prepared for brainless biscep-triscep-abs fanservice and was pleasantly surprised to see that the characters are actually really likeable, and the showcasing of the characters' emotions and relationships have played out fantastically. There's also the great self-awareness, which I think does a great deal in making all the fanservice all the more enjoyable. That there's actually a lot of swimming and that the animation for the competition sequences is so amazing is just the cherry on top. 4. Rozen Maiden:Zuruckspulen had an awful first episode, but the plot has picked up since then and it's actually one of the most interesting shows of the season. Having these familiar characters thrown into a darker and very different setting is pretty cool, and I'm overall enjoying the concept of this and Jun's self-exploration. It hit some sort of slump around the middle -I think it was two or three episodes- that consisted of nothing but Shinku and Suigintou catfighting, but it's gone back on track and I'm currently really excited to see how it continues. Silver Spoon is another show for which I didn't have much expectations after dropping the manga out of boredom. I was surprised to see how well it translates into anime, and how engaged I became with the characters and their development. There are many things about Hachiken's struggles and dilemmas that I can easily relate to -I could never give up eating meat, but I don't think I could raise an animal to kill and eat later- and I think the way his feelings are portrayed is very true and easy to simpathize with. 6. Another tie between Makai Ouji and Blood Lad. Like with Free!, Makai Ouji is actually more entertaining and interesting than I expected it to be. The fujoshi pandering is a big plus, but there's much more to it. I think they're doing a great job in developping this clichéd plot of Heaven vs Hell and have made the folkloric characters of both realms interesting and very fun to watch. Uriel's struggle between his devotion to William and his loyalty to Heaven is really interesting to watch and I'm really looking forward to watch it develop. Blood Lad is insanely fun. Staz is a great main character, with his cynical attitude and his otaku persona. If anything, the scripting of his dialogues is great. There were a couple of episodes in the middle where I lost interest, but somehow the series managed to churn in a huge cast and make all of them memorable and fun. The final episode was amazing, they poked at the usual anime clichés, made fun of them and reinvented them in a really cool way while never taking itself too seriously. The fanservice is a bit overwhelming and Fuyumi is as interesting as watching paint dry, but I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. 7. Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi is an okay show. The aesthetics are very pretty and it has a great setting, but it lacks consistency. It has great moments that touch deep into the characters' and the viewers' emotions -episode 3, imho has been the best of the whole series, and episode 9 was great too- but it also has incredibly dull episodes that feel like a total waste of screentime -namely, the School arc-. The new arc seems interesting and my interest in the show has rekindled because of it, although spoiler[yet another school setting] makes me wonder about the writers' creativity, but it's at least something I look forward to figure out. 8. Mushibugyo has never been a stellar show, but I believe this second half has made vast improvements over the first. Mostly, because the enemies aren't giant brainless insects anymore and there's something more to the fights than people slashing blades randomly. It's very typical monster-of-the-week shonen stuff, but at least it's really fun and the history geek in me is very very happy to see Sanada Yukimura and his Ten Braves represented here. Also, Jinbei is super fun to watch. 9. Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya is fun alright. The amount of loli fanservice sometimes rubs me the wrong way, but I overall find it good natured and overall fun. And it's actually a cooler show than I ever would've given it credit for -Card Installing is super baddass- Episodes 7-8 sort of killed my interest in it, but as the final battle approaches, I'm at least looking forward to more baddass fights and magical stuff. 10. It's hard to decide whether the bottom show for me this season is Danganronpa or Gen'ei wo Kakeru Taiyou. On the one hand, Danganronpa's plot was never attractive to me -Lol kids having to kill each other just for kicks. FUN- but at least the mistery element and the over-the-top characterizations kept my interest on it. spoiler[Now that all the interesting characters are dead and we're left with the incredibly boring protagonist and a bunch of not really interesting fella's] I question if I really want to keep watching it. OTOH, GenTaiyou is just dull. I liked the tarot element, but the characters are so uninteresting and the story is so utterly predictable I can't give a flying fudge about spoiler[one of the girls dying or another one having to kill her friend] or whatever. So many plot points are forced and contrived like Luna's overzealousness over Akari or tspoiler[he incredibly stupid mob scene in episode 10]. And Akari's excessive "No but we can't even attempt to fight it because pretty words are the way to solve deadly problems" that keeps putting people in danger annoys me to no end (spoiler[the latest episode pissed me off with that again when I thought that attitude had already been discarded]). Overall a big fat snoozefest. Plus, the cheap design of their magical girl outfits, which has never failed to bother me since I feel cheated. |
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danilo07
 Posts: 1580 |
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Fair enough,I guess we will wait and see!
Well yeah shows central themes are dynamics and functionality of traditional family,and then there is also theme of dealing with death,political games etc...However I think episode 5 and 6 of Eccentric Family really do deal with the same themes Silver Spoon does just in a completely different way. |
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rheiders
 Posts: 1137 Location: Colorful Colorado :) |
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This summer is shaping up to be even better than spring. What's wrong with this summer season!? Summer's not supposed to be good! xD I had to drop a bunch of series I was on the fence about, but there's a pretty sizeable group of series I just loved too much to drop despite not really having time for all of them.
1. The Eccentric Family: Definitely agree with Bamboo, 100%. This show really snuck up on me. I thought it was fairly promising from the beginning due to its interesting art style and poetic dialogue (definitely feels like a novel adaptation, whether you like that style or not--I love it), but I didn't expect to love it as much as I do now. It's a beautiful and subtle series with a lot of great, complex themes about family and honor and death. I love every single character (well, not counting those Ebisugawa jerks, excepting Kaisei) and the last few episodes in particular have been true works of art. I have the dread suspicion the finale may not pass by without some big sacrifices, but I look forward to it all the same. I love how uniquely Japanese the series is, but I do sometimes find myself wishing it were a little less foreign, just so I could show it to more of my friends. But on the other hand, that would ruin a big part of the show's charm. 2. Attack on Titan: Uchouten Kazoku is my favorite of the season, but this is the one that keeps me up nights waiting for the next episode. Every episode is careful to end on an intense cliffhanger, so I'm trapped! xD Not that I mind, of course. I love the characters and the high-stakes action full of crazy twists and turns. 3. Free!: Like a lot of other people, I was expecting a lot less than I got. This show is a ton of fun. This show hits all the right beats as a sports anime and has plenty of time left over to have some fun with its infectiously likable and hilarious characters. The animation is gorgeous, too. And, y'know, the fanservice is nice. 4. Silver Spoon: Just finished catching up today! I like this show more and more with each episode. I don't know what it is about this show, but it's just so pleasant to watch. The time watching it flies by because it's just so nice and friendly and relaxing. I like the cute animals and the farming facts, as well as how realistic the show is about its subject matter. I relate a lot to Hachiken as well, as someone who is struggling to find a place in the world after spending my entire high school career studying. It's interesting to see Arakawa tackle "equivalent exchange" yet again in a completely different context. It's nice to see how much range she has as a storyteller, even if she keeps returning to the same core themes. The one downside is that I'm going to be even more heartbroken than Hachiken when Butadon is taken to the slaughterhouse... ;^; 5. Gatchaman Crowds: I love it but I'm several episodes behind right now. I'm working on catching up but this is a crazy semester for me. Nakamura is one of my favorite directors, so of course I love the craziness and his unique visual flair present here. I also really like Hajime and her very unique worldview. I'm interested to see more of the show's take on social media and the meaning of heroism. 6. Genshiken 2nd Gen: I'm behind on this one too. I like the focus on female fans. It's a nice change of pace. Hato is a fun and interesting character. I've always been a fan of Genshiken so I'm always happy for more, and this continues to be everything I love about the franchise. Things I've Dropped: Sunday Without God: The show has too many ideas and amateurish execution that fails to pull off any of them properly. I tried to keep watching after the first arc ended, but just found myself bored by all the characters and actively annoyed by Ai's cavity-inducing sweetness. The high saturation backgrounds were pretty at first but just made my head hurt after a while. I was going to wait to hear opinions before deciding for sure whether to finish it or not, but nothing I've read over in the series thread since has made me want to continue. Kinmoza!: I'm in the same boat as Bamboo. The second episode was sweet, but after seeing what the show is capable of in the first episode, I wanted more out of it. All it would take is for the show to either be a short or arrange itself as one-episode-long vignettes and I would probably still be watching, but the 4-panel format just couldn't hold my interest. Not a bad show by any means, but I couldn't stop thinking of what could have been. Watamote: This is a really good show. It's hilarious and sad and I relate to Tomoko on a very personal level. Which is why I had to drop it. It was only a couple of years ago that I was just like her, and I'm still trying to work my way through some of my social anxiety issues. This show hits too close to home for me; I wish I could handle it, but I just can't. Blood Lad: I was bugged by the treatment of Fuyumi and the visual style, so I dropped it. Just wasn't eager to watch anymore. |
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CrowLia
Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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I felt exactly the same. I only watched one episode, and though I could rationally see why this should be funny, the fact that I'm not too far from Tomoko's position made it difficult to watch. I could relate too much to how she felt and how hard it is to communicate with people -for no good reason other than it's just hard-, and the fact that I'm not entirely over that social disfunctionality made it impossible for me to enjoy since it just kept reminding me of my own shortcomings in painful ways. It's a bit awful because my sister aka Miss Socialité is loving the show and keeps insisting on how I should watch it -it was because of her that I watched that one episode-, and it's sort of embarrassing to tell her the reason of why I don't want to, so I just keep dodging the issue. On another note, isn't it funny that our top five's are nearly identical? 
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Galap
Moderator
 Posts: 2354 |
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While from Bamboo this was a criticism of the show, for me it's one of the main reasons I like it. It makes sense when you think that the Daemonia are really personifications of bad events. Things go wrong fast when they do, and people respond quickly as well. The lack of too much anticipation and follow through makes this story for me: for example spoiler[at the end of episode 9, Luna gets turned into a beast, and it's implied that she'll be used to attack the rest of the main characters. The next episode opens with that attack taking place.] Any kind of building anticipation would have induced eyerolls from me and weakened the effect. |
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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I agree that The Eccentric Family and Gatchaman Crowds are the best shows of this season so far. I still need to caught up with The Eccentric Family, but I enjoyed a lot the 5 episodes which I have seen. Gatchaman Crowds is fantastic. It is a nice change from standard super-hero shows. I also watched few episodes of Silver Spoon and I think it is a good and well-executed series, but it doesn’t appeal to me. Watching a boy who doesn’t know what to do with himself bores me. It doesn’t help I don’t find the setting interesting either. I read a bit about Gen'ei wo Kakeru Taiyou to see if it is worth watching, because there was a possibility that it would improve certain things that are not so good in Madoka and be a better series than its predecessor. The advantage of being the second and having the possibility to analyze problems and fix them. But it’s seems it doesn’t do it and is just an inept copy of Madoka.
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SwerveCity
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Well I suppose I'll give my rankings and explain why in case someone reads this thread and hasn't already decided what they liked and disliked from this season. Just to warn you guys I've fell behind by a couple of episodes for a few shows, so if there's anything strange in my comments just imagine I'm 1-3 eps behind.
1)Eccentric Family Gonna have to agree with the (almost) universal plaudits. It's very entertaining and the characters are adorable. 2)ServantXService Gonna have to disagree with Bamboo. I'm finding the characters refreshing, the show hilarious and the plot is moving at a comfortable pace. I'm definitely enjoying my 25mins every week. 3)Monogatari Second Season I liked Bakamonogatari and Nekomonogatari and I like this. It doesn't have any of the problems that Nisemonogatari had either, a great return to form. 4)Attack on Titan(tie) I'm not sure how Bamboo got that this was quick paced. It's pacing has been very slow up until the most recent couple of episodes. I blame the constant flashbacks, if something exciting is happening the last thing I want is to go back 2 weeks so as to give the characters development, it's just plain bad writing. But like I said it's picked up recently and I'm enjoying it a lot again. 4)Gatachman Crowds(tie) I don't seem to be enjoying this as much as everyone else but it's a fun and interesting show for reasons Bamboo mentioned. Oh and the villain is really good. 6)Fate/Kaleid Prisma Illya I'm a big type moon fan and this is great. While it can be slow paced, it was all worth it for that fight, best fight of the year in my opinion. 7)Yami Shibai It's entertaining and well put together. Well worth the 5minutes every week. 8)Dangonronpa I liked this a lot at the start but it's getting fairly repetitive. Also the bloods unusual colouring just makes everything hilarious. 9)Day Break Illusion It's...okay. Like Bamboo said, it's hard to care about any of the characters deaths when they aren't developed but it does seem like it's building to something. 10)Railgun The first half was so good, I'm scared to start it up again. I imagine it's returned to SoL and we'll get no more terrorism and Touma punching people. 11)Watamote I'm watching it but I'm not sure why. I don't really find it funny and I find it awkward but I can't look away. Ahhhh. I'm really thinking of starting Silver Spoon after seeing this almost universal praise. |
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fstony
Posts: 10 |
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Well, I'm glad someone got something out of Silver Spoon. It's a show I wanted to like, but I can't say it's must-see TV. Maybe I've spent too much time in Wisconsin.
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crosswithyou
 Posts: 2892 Location: California |
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Uchouten Kazoku had been on my watchlist but seeing it at the top of this list made me finally get off my butt and watch it. I just finished episode 9 and will be saving ep 10 for tomorrow since it's time for bed.
It's been a while since an anime has made me cry, and ep 8 accomplished it with relative ease. I'm a bit late to the game, but this one's definitely a winner. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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Hmm, i'm one of those people who dropped Gatchaman Crowds after the first ep. Maybe i'll give it another try if the new season turns out really boring...aside from The Eccentric Family, Attack on Titan and Free! i also really enjoy Genshiken Nidaime, Makai Ouji, Hakkenden 2, Senyuu 2 and Monogatari 2...that's a lot of twos, actually.
Kind of (un)related: it's pretty interesting that female-oriented shows like Makai Ouji or Hakkenden don't seem to generate much discussion in the forum. They may not exactly be masterpieces but they aren't worse than a lot other shows that have lengthy threads. I'm not exactly complaining, more like wondering and i know that i could easily have started a thread for those series myself, but a) i'm lazy and b) i don't want to start a thread which nobody's gonna participate in... |
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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The Eccentric Family vs. Silver Spoon on meat consumption: While The Eccentric Family brings up some great philosophical points, they are being pointed out by sentient animals who know they're being eaten and the philosophy itself wouldn't be unfamiliar to anyone who grew up with a religious or cultural tradition that deals with meat consumption in a respectful way. I find it interesting that so many cultures have meat-eating rules and regulations-their are some that don't allow meat eating at all; most have prayers/benedictions said or rituals performed before consuming meat; and different types of ritual slaughter meant to reduce animal suffering. Many humans, it seems, have always struggled with the idea of eating other living creatures and the ideas presented in The Eccentric Family align with these traditional takes on being a thoughtful instigators in the circle of life.
Silver Spoon has a more practical, modern and less philosophical take on eating meat. The series acknowledges the reality that most people around the world live in urban areas far, far away from food production, and they eat a whole lot of meat without having to give a thought about the animals killed to provide it. Farmers and others who work in food production have to work more efficiently than ever before in human history to provide food. Many traditional philosophies fall by the wayside, and it's not something that most people have to deal with. Hachiken was an average, modern, city kid who didn't think about where his food came from before he came face to face with the faces of the chickens, cows and pigs behind his food, and now he has to learn some harsh lessons that are forcing him to make meat eating a conscious choice. It's kind of brutal, because as thinking, sentient beings, many of our traditional coping mechanisms are gone and the question of eating other living creatures still looms for most of us. If you think about it, The Eccentric Family and Silver Spoon are working side by side this seasons, bringing up these questions from the traditional, philosophical perspective and the modern, realistic perspective and providing thoughtful commentary on both in an engaging way. |
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Red Fox of Fire
 Posts: 345 |
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I just...I do not understand the love for Silver Spoon at all. I find the show a complete, absolute bore but have not heard of one single person who sees the same. I care so little about everything that happens in it that the subtle, mediocre romance is what I enjoy the most. And I typically roll my eyes in annoyance at that stuff.
But oh well. Otherwise, I either agree with Bamboo's list or at least see where she's coming from. Well, maybe not for Stella Women's Academy. That's a weird one, in that I'd probably rate it similarly but for an entirely different reason: I both love and hate it. Oh, I also think Danganronpa deserves more credit. I mean, geez, at least put it above Prisma Ilya. That show really is just pure fanservice in more than one way while reminding me how much better Madoka and Utakata were at magical girl drama. Too bad Love Lab didn't make it in as that's my current favorite of the season. It did get streamed late, but it's really an unexpected hit in my eyes. I agree that Servant x Service started really boring (almost dropped it myself) but it got a lot better and now I quite like it. It helps that the setting is actually unique for anime. Poor Fantasista Doll. The dislike for it is no surprise, but I love the show in the weirdest way. FRIENDSHIP CANNON! HELL YEAH! Apparently I need to watch The Eccentric Family. It's one that I skipped on but has been receiving a lot of praise from everyone. And last but not least, welcome back, Bamboo. I was wondering what had happened to your columns. |
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rheiders
Posts: 1137 Location: Colorful Colorado :) |
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I thought we already established how uncannily similar our tastes are xD *glances at avatar* |
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