Forum - View topicThe Winter 2016 Anime Preview Guide
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1395 |
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Wooooo. Finally caught up with the premieres...just in time for Preview Guide to wrap up
 . Thanks, getting sick.
Dagashikashi was actually pretty charming. Nothing was really laugh out loud funny, but I had a smile on my face pretty much the whole time. I like the little touches of jokes carrying on offscreen or in the background while conversations move forward, like Hotaru fanning her lips while continuing to talk. It's nothing amazing, but it's a nice enough looking show and it could make a solid double feature with Osomatsu-san on mondays. Assassination Classroom 2 felt like a weird reintroduction to the series. The matchmaking stuff was funny, but the whole episode felt like "oh right, here's some epilogue stuff we didn't have time to tack on to last season" rather than a proper beginning to the new season. I'm also really, really hoping the day the characters stop calling Irina "bitch" is soon. It's this weirdly meanspirited line that pops up in otherwise pleasant scenes. Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjo was definitely well-composed and unique, but I'm not sure I was as into it as many others seem to be. I certainly didn't dislike it, but sometimes the pacing of dialoque felt just...off. Not sure how to describe it, but it took me out of the experience at times and I wish I knew why. Otherwise it's definitely a stellar effort from a very clever director, and I'm curious to see what the rest of the show will be like it. There's potential to be something really special here, and I hope I either warm up to it more, or can at least figure out what my major disconnect is. Durarara!!x2 The Final Arc was simultaneously busy as hell and really leisurely with itself. So many switches and turns in the dozen different storylines, yet the best parts were just Celty losing her patience with the army of weirdos squatting in her apartment . Looking forward to how this series will end - or at least seeing if it'll even attempt to tie its plot strings together into anything but a gordian knot. The first cour of x2 lost a lot of my good will, but the 2nd reminded me why I liked the series in the first place. Here's hoping that's an upward trend rather than a repeating pattern.
Rainbow Days was boring enough that despite watching all of it I can't remember a thing from it. Or maybe that's the cough syrup. Either way I think I'll pass on more. Dimension W was...competent. Well paced, serviceable worldbuilding, and with some perfectly effective action sequences. It'll probably be an entertaining watch this season, but not one I'm particularly excited for. And yeah, less focus on the robutt would be appreciated. Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle wasn't...as unpleasant as any of the Magic High School light novel shows last season, but that's mostly by virtue of being too dull to be annoying. Not much to say about these shows after having over a half dozen just this past year. Pass. Snow White with the Red Hair 2 managed to pull off what AssClass2 couldn't - a simple, pleasant return to its lovable cast coupled with an intriguing setup for future troubles. Much like Noragami's return last season, I didn't realize how much I missed these characters til I got them back, and just spending time with them in their daily lives was like coming home again. It's not the most thrilling show out their, but it's quietly poignant and feels like a warm hug. AoKana ain't gonna win any awards, but it was a pleasant enough way to zone out for 20 minutes. I doubt I'll give this a second look, but in a season with so many shrill, nasty, or otherwise irritating shows to sit through, this one gets points for being unobtrusively average. KonoSuba was...well I did mention shrill and nasty there didn't I? Yeah, this one sucked pretty hard. Honestly feels like what I was expecting Grimgar to play out as: derivative, meanspirited, and with a thick coating of slime around the whole package. I'd be all for a show ribbing the general "Loser gets sucked into a game world" setup, but something about the execution feels just...mean. And not in a way that feels pointed, like Welcome to the NHK or even Osomatsu-san's darker jokes. It's mean in the way of an angry dude on an IRC channel hurling insults at you because "that's how he jokes". This season hasn't exactly been off to a great start, but this was a pretty sour note to end on. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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I actually found KonoSuba very funny, but when the show calls out Aqua for having below average intelligence, I actually rewound because I thought I had misread the subs. I was just thinking about how clever she seemed as a character, and the show outright tells us she's supposed to be stupid. And the MC's supposed to be smart--that's nice, I guess, but they didn't demonstrate that, either. It does seem a bit sexist if the highly sexualized fanservice character is supposed to be stupid just because the show tells us that, and the very average looking male MC is highly intelligent by the same standard. There was no rhyme or reason to it. (Not equating looks with intelligence here, but the show might be?)
Otherwise the show seemed equal in showing us how mean spirited both characters were, and how they both got comeuppance moments when they were called out on their BS. Rebecca's review brought up some interesting questions. During the show, I got the feeling Aqua was tricking the MC into thinking he was dead because she needed a soldier in that world. I kind of hope they go with that, add some drama. Oh, the show looks like utter crap. Those are the most mediocre character designs ever, and the animation kept reusing stills and...I want to say GIFs. But it was funny, so another show to try out!
Every time I read something like this and find myself agreeing to it, I start to wonder "how low are our standards?"
Pretty damned low. (I agree with you, but I remember a time when seeing underage (elementary school-aged) girls simply bathing in anime creeped me out. Or maybe that original Utawarerumono OVA would still creep everybody out. I just don't know anymore!) |
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Rensie
Posts: 251 |
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Lol, what do you expect from the guy who spread "misogyny" words into anime (when these anime were created with women working on them too)? He is obviously the random anti-anime voice you find to increase debates and clicks. Classic ANN known around the anime communities. Focus on the more professional and impartial ones like Martin and Cramer (in a certain degree) if you want a more accurate preview of a show. Konosuba is not bad as an adaption but the animations...
Wise decision, watch the show and make your own opinion and only after read previews is the best way. Last edited by Rensie on Thu Jan 14, 2016 2:38 am; edited 3 times in total |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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Well, i'm glad i checked out KonoSuba before reading the reviews because i probably wouldn't have bothered with it otherwise.
I thought it was really funny, probably the funniest (new) show of the season. The only offensive thing to me was that we got to see more of Aqua's butt than her face. My opinion might still change, but for now this show has taken the vacant spot for "trapped inside a game" anime since i've decided not to follow Grimgar. |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2247 |
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You do know Hope's not a guy, right? On a comedy level KonoSuba just didn't work for me. I don't mind mean-spirited protagonists as long as they actually get called out on their dickish-ness (like in Charlotte's first episode), but this kind of just felt like everyone was taking unnecessary potshots at everybody. It was just too much for me. |
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Kamagor
 Posts: 32 |
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Seeing the talk over Konosuba, I gave it a watch and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but I understand the things not to like. I thought it had moments of being funny, but it's interspersed with the mean spirited elements and the montage with repeated animation just feels lazy. It's like half an episode at best to me.
The "I'm in a game" aspect feels half-assed also. Sword Art has the big gimmick of getting trapped through the headset and fighting for ones life, Log Horizon has a big mystery behind the reasons, others are just a fantasy world with MMO type coatings, though serviceable, but this was like "Well ya died stupidly, we randomly have a game world you can go to...have fun I guess...". Small bits of genuine humor stuck out to me, but it's lost amid a kinda shoddy project. |
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2337 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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You know, when we watched Excel Excel being a dumbass and getting killed off by her master over and over, we found it endearing.
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CheezcakeMe
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I actually really liked Konosuba. Sure it could be tasteless at times but overall it was pretty funny and I thought the mains had some good chemistry. And sure people complain about misogyny in the show, but the insults and degrading goes both ways, she was just as mean to him as he was to her, and they seem to work it out by the end of the episode. Also it's nice to see a female character that doesn't just worship the ground our protagonist walks on. Devoted waifu characters insult me way more than two a-holes bickering.
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Mitrospeed
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Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
So some of you might be confused on what this show is trying to be and where it will go from here. Since you can easily get the wrong idea at first, I’ll try as good as I can to give you a little impression ( without spoiling anything of course ) on what to expect from this show and its source material as it’s quite unique. If you want to go completely blind into this then just stop here. Let me start off by saying that this is no game nor virtual reality It's just a simple and real fantasy world. Actually this little conversation about "Game, what's a game?" was a jab against all those trapped in a game themes. The premise may seem generic to some people and I can’t deny it. The show doesn’t start in a unique way, we know this "woke up in the middle of nowhere, without memories" scenario. The thing is don’t let yourself be fooled with that. This series is one of the most unique shounen fantasy stories, with really realistic character interactions and development I’ve ever seen. It takes its time but it gets there. If I’d have to shorten its essence into one sentence I would say…hm..."Struggle to achieve something, regardless how noteworthy it is" or "Realistic people facing realistic consequences in an unrealistic world." It’s quite simple. If you are tired of OP main characters or unbelievable strong characters in general and actually want to see a realistic way on how people deal with hardships and the consequences of human failure then this will satisfy you. And believe me it can get quite dark, Drama isn’t a tag for nothing, the story also doesn’t try to hide the cruelty of this world at all and also doesn’t try to give you the impression like "no one will ever possibly die in here“. I don’t know how the anime will handle it. Will they keep the sometimes slow pace but deep character interactions and development or will they skip most of those things and make the hardships seem less…hard? I seriously hope they plan for it to be 2-cour or a show with more seasons as it really needs its proper time and pace to fully develop. Apparently the director is a Madhouse veteran who has pretty much a free hand on this one. He worked on shows like Death Note, Monster and Black Lagoon. This raises my hopes on a decent adaptation. All in all I quite liked the first. The visuals completely blew me away as the water color really fit the overall feel the show intends to give. I also could already feel a slight...ominous feeling that slowly crawls up your back. What I didn't like that much was how they exaggerated the entire breast talk ( which is one of the only scenes you could see as fan service ) compared to the LN. In there this whole talk was to give us a short look on how the characters act with each other what their behavior in front of these strangers is. By stretching it they kinda lost this purpose and it just felt...off. But that's about my only negative point. |
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Hiroki not Takuya
 Posts: 2520 |
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Boo reviewers, Sekko Boys is already streaming and not a word here! Well, it is silly but the delivery so far is hilarious. Imagine being an spoiler[art student forced to draw plaster still-lifes until she can't stand the mindless repetition so she decides to try being an entertainment management office worker only to get "instantly" promoted to manager of an idol group of (wait for it) plaster busts of Greek gods and a random Italian merchant! Seems real "idols" are too hard to deal with.]Love the humor and will look forward to seeing the second installmant. By the way, Sekko is a misspelling and should be Sekkou, look it up on Romanji Desu.
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9848 Location: Virginia |
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@Hiroki not Takuya
Sekko Boys is a seven and a half minute show. They are not reviewing any of the short series. |
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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They have said they aren't reviewing shorts. And Medici was more than just some merchant. The Medici family was not just successful in business but also politics in Florence and elsewhere. They were also important patrons of the arts and architecture, funding a lot of the renaissance artists such as Michelangelo and for several years Da Vinci. The core of the Uffizi gallery in Florence is from the family's collection. The family also produced 4 popes, who also funded the arts and architecture, like the Sistine Chapel. In Renaissance Italy they were a very important family and were important contributors to the arts, not some random merchant. Oh and Saint George is obviously not a Greek god but a saint. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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I enjoyed KonoSuba's first episode but how come the MC has high luck? He is anything but lucky.
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zrnzle500
Posts: 3767 |
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Yeah thinking you saved a girl from a truck, pissing yourself and dying, and subsequently being laughed at by even your family members isn't very lucky. Then again being transported to an RPG like world when you are a fan of such things is certainly extremely lucky. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11376 |
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Somehow I'm doubting that part of her story. Actually, the whole thing sounds kinda fishy. >.> |
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