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So I finished off Dynamic Chord. Nothing really left to say about it. At least they all made it to their Christmas concert, yay.

I ran across this article about how this totally went off the rails. Apparently, though Studio Pierrot is responsible for it, they subcontracted all 12 episodes, some of which were further farmed out, so no one was really talking to anyone to keep it all coordinated. It's an interesting read, plus some additional gifs and stills to illustrate just how bad it got. While I certainly can't recommend the series, I do recommend reading the article ("This is How Anime Breaks"). Plus this video of the guitarist, shot without a visible guitar so it looks like he's humping something just out of frame, is priceless.

Code:Realize -Guardian of Rebirth-, Episode 12 (finale)

That is Code:Realize over, and I can say that at least it is not the worst reverse harem out there. Not the best, Cardia worked pretty well at gaining her own strength as the series went on, like becoming a part of the team, acting as a leader during the race episode which was especially cool. But I question the end of the season being a her being saved plot, where she could not contribute a lot. Barely I guess helped by her trying to do something, like not letting people die. The end choice of spoiler[her having a wedding] was probably a bit much. Maybe she needed some female friends.

The series had some nice reason though in some of her characteristics, the sort of thing a lot of these heroines who come from otome reverse harem games. Like the infamous Amnesia heroine. Though again Cardia is far better than that. I don't know about most, but I kind of thought that Frankenstein was best boy, with Van Helsing coming in second. Actually, it kind of annoyed me that they acted like "Van" is his first name, when in Dracula it is Abraham Van Helsing.

I am rating it So-so (5/10), I know that there can be reverse harems I can really enjoy, and this did not quite get up to that level, and I would have thought that I would like the setting more. There really was not much to it except maybe a blimp ride episode, which really was the best episode of the series. Was there even any point to there being vampires, though?

It is a show that has been mentioned here a number of times already, and I just finished off Elegant Yokai Apartment Life with its 26th episode. I actually was not so much of a fan of the show earlier on, and it just felt worst when part way through its first cour it went from just being a living in an apartment story, to the main character getting trained in magic, liked it messed with the focus of the story in kind of being confusing. But I ended up really enjoying it into its second cour, where we had payoff for the earlier stories and the new stuff seemed to fit it all together. But I am also kind of sad to mention, that the last episode was kind of boring, it went for a Christmas and new years theme, playing around with past and future stuff, but did not actually feel quite satisfying to some of the story elements I wanted. Specifically how the show had started this sort of rivalry with a bunch of kids that apparently were having a hard time, and all seemed to ran to a certain teacher who could help them, but a number of elements pointed that although happy there was something entirely healthy here. At one point spoiler[one of those students tried to stab the cool teacher], and that situation was kind of left like using some sort of brute force with magic made up for it.

It handled some arcs well, like that one which had spoiler[removing the evil corruption force from a person did not actually magically make him a really good teacher/person]. Kind of did this thing in saying you don't always get easy answers, but some other stories seemed to solve them with too easy answers, like beating or terrifying someone with magic, which seemed terrible for a show which was billing itself with being more mature than that. I also had some problems with certain characters, like that damn trio of birds that always ended things with the same damn cheep phrase.

I did like parts of the show, it actually felt like there were some thins I felt like repeating, or maybe gave me the teeniest bit insight into something I might not have known. But I can't really say it is the sort of thing I would be interested to own myself. I give a rating of Decent (6/10), in the end I would not say I quite lose my time with the show in general, but I did kind of have some rough spots in places.

I mostly felt the opposite with Youkai Apt. in that the first half was good, but then it kind of fell apart in the second half, for a lot of the reasons you mentioned (I think you meant "unhealthy" regarding the girls and the aggresively-nice teacher?). Still, Kuri was so overwhelmingly cute, he made up for everything.

Just finished off Tsuki-Pro and I swear to god, I can't remember a single thing that happened during the whole series. The only reason I remember that it seemed to revolve around their Christmas performance at Budokan was because the last episode was their Christmas performance at Budokan. That episode was worth watching (if you like this stuff at all). Although it's all CG, the choreography was very nice (albeit mostly reused from the OPs), especially in the group finale, where you could pick out individual personalities just from their body language. The songs were good as these things go, and I particularly enjoyed Growth's Celtic inspired music and SolidS was pretty dynamic. Three or four of these guys can really sing too, so that always nice when you can watch it without wincing.

I also really liked Quell's outfits - really classy compared to those seizure-inducing abominations I showed you from Dream Festival R. Still not too crazy for the twins' granny-sweater/hoodies though. Smile

I recently finished Re:Creators. Took me a while, but I managed to do it. All in all a decent show. Too much talking. And the dialogue was way too... like technical or meticulous? I don't know the right word to describe it. Just very difficult to follow when you're not interested in it. Magane was an interesting character. Watching her trick people was kinda fun, spoiler[but only in a way of making her more hateable so that it would be more satisfying to see her DIE at the end. But that didn't happen so that was disappointing.]

Also finished Inuyashiki. Now it was actually really fun. It was somehow capable of really emotional storytelling while also being kind of absurd at the same time. It had one of the best openings I've heard this year which always managed to pump me up. It managed to make its villain really fascinating despite him being pretty much a complete psychopath.

Now I started to watch Princess Principal. I've only watched 2 episodes, but so far it seems good enough. Ange seems like an interesting character. How she can pretend to me someone else and it being difficult to tell when she's lying and when she's telling the truth seem kinda fascinating. Hopefully the show won't drop that part of her character. The princess at first seemed like a typical angelic princess character. That she turns out to be kinda crafty is good and interesting because an angelic, super nice princess character would have been extremely dull. Also the opening is really cool. It's kinda jazzy and fits the setting. Nice.

I'm watching Slam Dunk at the moment. It's interesting to see how it inspired more modern sports series like Haikyuu and Kuroko no Basket. Sakamichi is a great character and it's been interesting to watch him develop.

After finishing Made in Abyss yesterday, I must say that it's the best anime of the year that I've seen so far. Maybe tied with My Hero Academia season 2 (I rated both a 9/10, and if I were allowed to give each one a little more of a specific score, I think My Hero Academia is anywhere from an 8.7 to a 9 while Abyss is a solid, on the dot, 9). A lot of people complain that the middle part drags, which it did, but since I watched the whole anime in two days, I barely had time to notice. Of course, I can completely sympathize with someone who watched it weekly and thought the Ozen and Training miniarcs were a slog. I've been watching The Walking Dead weekly since season 5 and that's essentially a series of cliffhanger endings where typically nothing much happens in the episodes until the last 15 minutes. But I'm getting off track.

The premise and mystery of the setting are instantly amazing to me. I've always loved adventure stories that FEEL like adventures. It's why One Piece is the shounen anime/manga I've most easily attached to (well, it's a huge part of it, but I have read and watched most of them and still think One Piece is objectively one of the better written manga in Shounen Jump). It's why I loved Hunter x Hunter and think of it as being the undisputed BEST work by Yoshihiro Togashi. It's one of the biggest reasons that I love Dragonball, the original series, but honestly think Z is just mediocre with a few moments of brilliance.

To clarify, anime where the protagonists are NEVER in the same setting two arcs in a row, are constantly exploring the fantastical world around them, and have some type of long-term epic goal in mind, are the anime I've craved ever since I started really getting into it back in 2004. I can handle mediocre plots and characters if the setting feels like a place that the writer was passionate about.

If you've been living under a rock and don't know what Made in Abyss' setting is like, I can explain it. Essentially, it starts off in a small town on the edge of a huge crater known as The Abyss, a gigantic pit that starts off with a kilometer wide diameter that only gets wider the further down you go. There are monsters and places down there that modern science can't hope to explain, such as an upside down forest (complete with an inverted waterfall where the water flies up instead of falling down), and a sea of crystallized water. People are drawn to the mystery of The Abyss and want to find more information inside in order to inform the world about it, like archaeologists in our world, but a mysterious force known as The Curse of the Abyss makes it easier to go into The Abyss than it is to exit. Merely ascending from The Abyss causes you to suffer symptoms such as nausea and headaches at the highest levels. The lower you go, the worse the consequences of ascending back home become. Anyone who goes beyond level 5 is essentially incapable of ever leaving The Abyss, as ascension either turns them into a monster or straight up kills them. As such, whenever a person goes to Layer 6 of the Abyss, it's referred to as their "Last Dive."

This is the epic stuff I crave. People leaving behind the lives they've known FOREVER in order to live out an exciting (likely incredibly short) life on their own terms. Great stuff! I'll stop rambling and say that, beyond the concept, this show is outstanding and has a lot of great moments in its last handful of episodes. Easily a 9/10 overall.

Hi all,

Hahaha, reading through this I'm so old school. I've been in and out of ANN over the years, but I've still kept watching anime. Thing is I seem to be a few years behind all the current stuff. Although generally, I like to watch something that has been completely released, so I can watch it on my own schedule. That being said, it sounds like there are some great anime available right now.

However, (and this is a huge throwback) I'm currently (finally, like seriously I waited way to long for this) watching Darker Than Black. I remember in 2007 when this came out I was so excited to see it, 2007 was a great year for anime, It's crazy its literally 11 years ago now.
Shocked

I was 15 then, and now I'm 26. It's funny how you want to watch a show for so long, and then wait, and then 11 years later, its actually living up to what I expected. Lots happens in 11 years, especially from 15 to 26, but apparently anime is timeless. I digress...

Anyways, it's a great show, I'm sure many of you have seen it. I'm on episode 17 right now. Really good characters, I like the rawness its story exudes, I like those shows that are somewhat episodic but also not. That composition seems to be in many of the Classics. Anyways, I'm back on the forums because I have no friends who watch anime, and you guys are cool. Always a good conversation going on here!

Happy New Year all, 2018 looks like it'll be a good year for anime! Surprised

I just wanted to get a couple of cents in there, carry on. Smile

Finally watching The Eccentric Family 2. I loved the first season so I was happy to see that the second season still has the magic and charm of the first. Also, Nidaime is my new favorite character.

Another multi-group idol series, another big stage finale, as I put quit to |do£M@§†e® SidE M. I think this is my favorite of this genre I've seen so far, since they don't use CG for the performances and the character designs are more appealing to me. The "We'll work harder to put smiles on everyone's faces!" theme was hammered on a bit too hard and too often (like every third line of dialog), especially in the last episode which seemed to be nothing but them repeating that over and over. But Pierre is such a charming cutie I can forgive an awful lot, including the fact that almost none of these guys can sing worth crap outside the shower.

One brief scene in the finale stole my heart when the ones not on stage were watching the performance on monitor from the green room, and they were all singing and dancing along with them, since they'd picked up each other's routines by osmosis during all the long hours of practices. It was a sweet moment. Smile

The reveal of the doctor's motivation for needing money and becoming an idol was beyond ridiculous though (and still doesn't excuse his assholery). That's not how these things work. By shifting off to pursuing idol-dom, he's set himself back financially by several years, compared to his income as a physician.

I'd watch another season, but I secretly hope there won't be one. Smile

By the way, one character keeps doing this quick little "3-1-5" hand movement which looks stupidly cool, but in this episode he capped it off with this:

Is that even physically possible? I sure can't do it, nor can I figure out what it's supposed to represent. I mean, if I use my left hand to position the right's fingers, I can kinda make them approximate that (long thin fingers would be helpful, which mine are not), but to just flip it out there? Not happening. Smile

@Gina Szanboti

I can get my middle finger on top of the ring finger without assistance but I can't get it quite that far with out bending the middle finger some. Also I don't think my wrist bends quite like that. I just noticed that my thumb starts further down the side of the hand and doesn't come near to that finger joint unless the hand is flexed.

I can do it quite easily on my right hand, my middle finger must be pretty flexible because I can get my finger down to the top knot without much trouble. But I do have problems on my left hand.

Finished watching The Eccentric Family 2 and I like it just as much as the first season. That fight was brutal and I actually felt sorry for Benten (never thought that would happen). Also, that end scene with Yasaburo, Kaisei, and fluffy grandma! YES!!

I tried watching Convenience Store Boyfriends and Sengoku Nightblood, but I lost interest not even halfway through both episodes.

I was trying to get my sister to watch Land of the Lustrous, where she was saying she was finding it incredibly boring early on, but luckily started to feel invested around the 3rd episode. I was telling her it was one of the best shows of this past season. Granted, I was making her watch this after she attempted to watch Sengoku Nightblood after I told her not to bother.

@ Alan and DP: Gifs or it didn't happen. Wink

Seriously, can you guys also raise only your middle toe without other toes joining in? Because for me that's the main problem with this - I can't move those middle fingers independently of the index and pinky (except for the Vulcan salute, and even that I have difficulty doing left-handed), which is required to end up with all fingers on the same plane. I can almost get there, but only if my index and pinky are raised above the plane of my palm while the middle and ring are below it. And my pinky keeps wanting to fold over the top of the ring finger too.

Finally finished off rewatching Kingdom, which I really do like (and hope they someday decide to continue with it), but somehow haven't been in the mood for for a long time.

I wish I could find someone in the industry who would trust me with the secret of why this dub was a) done at all, b) why the dvd defaults to the Japanese track, and c) why it is completely uncredited. The only English credits are for the translation and DVD authoring itself. I mean, I guess I can see that pretty much everyone would feel it was a blot on their resume, especially the script writer and the director (assuming there even was a director - this is so bad, it might've just been the audio engineer doing their best to get the lines on tape).

There are a number of veteran voices I recognize (Kirby Morrow, Brad Swaille, Shannon Chan-Kent, Matt Hill) but I can't find any solid evidence to make entries for the Encyclopedia, where so far only 3 actors have admitted to working on this thing. Smile

Speaking of the Encyclopedia, it originally said Justin Cook was the producer, but that credit is now gone (he was also credited as voicing Shin, but that's also changed). Yet the dvd packaging lists Cook, Carly Hunter and Michael Harcourt as producers, so I wonder if Cook asked for his name to be removed from the Encyclopedia entry? Shocked

Curiouser and curiouser. Heh, you should see the font on the box that credits Cook, et al, as the producer. It's so tiny you can barely even tell it's print without a magnifying glass. Funimation was really trying its hardest to shield everyone involved with the dub from discovery.

And yet they have ALL the credits for the Japanese production translated. An entire screen packed with dozens of names of the key animators, another for the 3DCG animators, every cast member down to Foot Soldier, everybody. I can't even imagine the effort it must've taken to translate all those names, since you can't always be sure about how to read a name without asking, and I imagine that very few, if any of those people ever got a credit in English before this. But why did they bother? Normally you're lucky to get the main cast and staff on the Japanese side, especially with Funimation releases.

So Caitlin Glass, you've been dropping in on the ANN forums lately - if you read this drop me a line and spill the beans! I can keep a secret. Wink

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What are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)

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