[TV] The What Anime Are You Watching Thread!
Older as in an older manga? Because the anime premiered in Japan just last season.
(And Noi is a sweetheart.)
I need to get around to watching the show, but I binged the manga in March and it was a lovely read. Heavily recommended, the style is... Organic and messy? Like Tsutomu Nihei (Blame!, Knights of Sidonia, ...) but without the architectural drawings in the background.
thanks man, i had never even heard of that, ill use it going forward
fade
Staff member
Yeah, I really liked the style. Kind of an R. Crumb quality.
I got more of a Moebius vibe out of the anime.
fade
Staff member
Maoyu and Spice and Wolf
I'm putting these together despite having watched them at very different times, because they have a similar feel to me. It was like watching an educational video on economics and government instead of a fictional story. Also, the censorship practice of nippleless boobs is weird. The entire boob is okay, just don't draw the nipple. Maoyu has that additional irritant of "we're monsters and a totally different species---despite looking and acting indistinguishably human". Which is common in a lot of fiction, but seems to be especially prevalent in anime. Overall, if you like shows with dry explanations of textbook topics, Japanese fundamental misunderstanding of Christianity, and lots of fanservice boobs, then go for it.
I'm putting these together despite having watched them at very different times, because they have a similar feel to me. It was like watching an educational video on economics and government instead of a fictional story. Also, the censorship practice of nippleless boobs is weird. The entire boob is okay, just don't draw the nipple. Maoyu has that additional irritant of "we're monsters and a totally different species---despite looking and acting indistinguishably human". Which is common in a lot of fiction, but seems to be especially prevalent in anime. Overall, if you like shows with dry explanations of textbook topics, Japanese fundamental misunderstanding of Christianity, and lots of fanservice boobs, then go for it.
GasBandit
Staff member
You and I are mostly on the same page. If you want to round out the trilogy of slow-paced administrative story anime (only with way less fanservice), you can also watch Snow White with the Red Hair.
GasBandit
Staff member
The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?!
Genre: Isekai, Harem, Action, Comedy, Fantasy.
Fanservice: Mild
Premise: Born again in another world, Wendelin does not have much to look forward to as the 8th son of an impoverished noble - until one day he discovers he has an amazing aptitude for magic. He decides to become an adventurer, but other powerful forces are in motion to use him and his magic for their own purposes.
It starts out with an interesting premise in kind of a goofy gimmick show... but then all of a sudden it takes a hard hairpin turn into harem territory and it all starts lazily spiraling downhill from there. Really, it came to require a bit of effort on my part to finish out the 12 episodes. Not QUITE a "chore," but headed in that direction.
It had such potential - first as an isekai that turns the genre on its head by having the protagonist be a loser (like Konosuba)... but then suddenly nope, he's OP like every cookie cutter Isekai. Then the girls start showing up, and at first it felt like it might could work its way into being a guilty pleasure "trashy-but-fun" show (like Domestic Girlfriend)... but nope... it became a stock standard paint-by-numbers harem plot. And as it keeps adding characters, they individually start getting so little screen time that nobody gets any further character development. By the end of the series, there's no immersion left, no concern that the hero might fail, no sympathy for his situation with his many concubines, and all in all just a general sense of ennui with the whole thing. It belongs in the bin with its close cousin, Isekai Cheat Magician.
Verdict: 2/5. Not terrible, but not good by any measurement.
Genre: Isekai, Harem, Action, Comedy, Fantasy.
Fanservice: Mild
Premise: Born again in another world, Wendelin does not have much to look forward to as the 8th son of an impoverished noble - until one day he discovers he has an amazing aptitude for magic. He decides to become an adventurer, but other powerful forces are in motion to use him and his magic for their own purposes.
It starts out with an interesting premise in kind of a goofy gimmick show... but then all of a sudden it takes a hard hairpin turn into harem territory and it all starts lazily spiraling downhill from there. Really, it came to require a bit of effort on my part to finish out the 12 episodes. Not QUITE a "chore," but headed in that direction.
It had such potential - first as an isekai that turns the genre on its head by having the protagonist be a loser (like Konosuba)... but then suddenly nope, he's OP like every cookie cutter Isekai. Then the girls start showing up, and at first it felt like it might could work its way into being a guilty pleasure "trashy-but-fun" show (like Domestic Girlfriend)... but nope... it became a stock standard paint-by-numbers harem plot. And as it keeps adding characters, they individually start getting so little screen time that nobody gets any further character development. By the end of the series, there's no immersion left, no concern that the hero might fail, no sympathy for his situation with his many concubines, and all in all just a general sense of ennui with the whole thing. It belongs in the bin with its close cousin, Isekai Cheat Magician.
Verdict: 2/5. Not terrible, but not good by any measurement.
I bailed just as the priestess arrived on the scene. It was so bland and meh I was asking myself why this even existed. But apparently it's doing really well in Japan. Go figure.
GasBandit
Staff member
Maybe it airs in the timeslot right after Bakarina or something.
No. It airs just before Kakusigoto on Thursdays.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, then I have no explanation. It's utter pablum. I mean, technically it is competently executed pablum, but that doesn't make it any less bland.
GasBandit
Staff member
It's an anime theme (Stein's Gate), done in the style of another anime's soundtrack (Initial D). This must be like the 10th time I've posted such a thing in this thread in the last 6 months
I don't know why, but I was thinking you had posted all the other ones in the music thread, too. Ah well.This must be like the 10th time I've posted such a thing in this thread in the last 6 months
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
I do post some of them in the other thread when the "source" song is not anime-derived, granted.
GasBandit
Staff member
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
Genre: Isekai, Romance, Comedy, Reverse-Harem
Fanservice: Not much aside from occasional cleavage shots
Premise: A japanese highschooler gets isekai'd into her favorite romance video game, but there's a twist.. she's not the heroine, but the cruel and haughty antagonist. This is a problem, because if her new life follows the events of the game, she's pretty much guaranteed to be either killed or exiled by the end of her second year of formal schooling.
Thus, she immediately begins taking steps to clear away any "doom flags" that might cause her death, as well as learning survival and farming skills that would come in handy to support herself if she is exiled to the wilderness (much to the consternation of her affluent parents, who view all of this as VERY unladylike).
However, what becomes blatantly obvious to the audience - but not to Catarina herself, as she is clueless and thick as a whale omelette - is that in the process of preventing her own doom, she is in fact redirecting all romantic attention away from the protagonist, and to herself instead. A love octagon ensues with Baka-rina in the middle, completely oblivious to the overtures of all her would-be suitors of both sexes.
It's a ridiculous, farcical story that, while not exactly a "new classic must-see" like other years' recent offerings, definitely is one of the better "guilty pleasure" low-substance-high-calorie affair. The ending is rather trite and predictable, but the journey is eyerollingly enjoyable.
Verdict: 3/5. The rating might be buoyed a little bit by how little of worth that there's been to compete with it this year, though.
Genre: Isekai, Romance, Comedy, Reverse-Harem
Fanservice: Not much aside from occasional cleavage shots
Premise: A japanese highschooler gets isekai'd into her favorite romance video game, but there's a twist.. she's not the heroine, but the cruel and haughty antagonist. This is a problem, because if her new life follows the events of the game, she's pretty much guaranteed to be either killed or exiled by the end of her second year of formal schooling.
Thus, she immediately begins taking steps to clear away any "doom flags" that might cause her death, as well as learning survival and farming skills that would come in handy to support herself if she is exiled to the wilderness (much to the consternation of her affluent parents, who view all of this as VERY unladylike).
However, what becomes blatantly obvious to the audience - but not to Catarina herself, as she is clueless and thick as a whale omelette - is that in the process of preventing her own doom, she is in fact redirecting all romantic attention away from the protagonist, and to herself instead. A love octagon ensues with Baka-rina in the middle, completely oblivious to the overtures of all her would-be suitors of both sexes.
It's a ridiculous, farcical story that, while not exactly a "new classic must-see" like other years' recent offerings, definitely is one of the better "guilty pleasure" low-substance-high-calorie affair. The ending is rather trite and predictable, but the journey is eyerollingly enjoyable.
Verdict: 3/5. The rating might be buoyed a little bit by how little of worth that there's been to compete with it this year, though.
GasBandit
Staff member
Season two continues to be a 3/5. Main is equal parts endearing and exhasperating, and a lot of nonsense is handwaved away. But, if you liked season one, season 2 is an acceptable continuance.Ascendance of a Bookworm
Genre: Stuck in Another World, Fantasy, Comedy, Diabeetus
Fanservice: None whatsoever.
Premise: Urano is a girl who loves books. Just as she is about to attain her lifelong dream of becoming a librarian, everybody's favorite Isekai device, Truck-kun, punches her ticket on a one-way journey to being reincarnated in a medieval fantasy world where books are scarce, expensive, and for a commoner like her, nigh-unobtainable. She resolves that if she can't find books to read, she'll make her own! Bankrolled by "inventing" items the modern world would take for granted like soup stock, pound cake, and low-effort homemade shampoo, she sets about trying to reinvent the process of making paper from wood, so that she can bind and write her own books. However, Maine, the little girl whose body she was reborn into, is extremely frail and is one of the unlucky kids born with a magical disease that almost guarantees she won't make it out of childhood alive...
It's a story with a lot of potential and some decent side characters. Urano/Maine herself is a little grating at times, but the real problem with this series is the absolutely glacial pacing. Where most seasonal weekly anime have 12 episodes, this one needed 14... and even then, only to get to the point where most first season anime would probably consider the halfway point. Still, the interesting twist on isekai gives it a slight bump up over most other middle of the road shows.
Verdict: 3.0 out of 5, but the pacing threatens to bump it down to 2.5... I hope season 2 improves on that.
If it counts for Attack on Titan, it counts for Bookworm.
Aw man, Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun only had ONE season? BUT IT WAS SO CUTE!
GasBandit
Staff member
Let me just say Fuck Rachel right in her stupid face with a brick.