What anime are you watching?

[BlueSpark]

After giving a rewatch to Waiting in the Summer, I've been checking out Hamatora. I'm currently at episode 10 of the 2nd season.

The series as a whole so far has been mildly unimpressive to me. At the beginning of season 1, I kind of liked the quirkiness/humor and - would you believe it - the episodic story structure (which I usually dislike). However, once the show put more emphasis on the overarching plot, I started to lose interest. The series tries to tell a grim story, but pales in comparison to, say, Psycho-Pass in this capacity (Indeed, the main villain showed a surprising amount of parallels to Shogo Makashima in his actions and goals). The plot ultimately wasn't gripping enough, and the comedy didn't get enough room to redeem the show.

That said, I'm liking season 2 better so far. I'm a bit more invested in the story (really only a little, but every bit helps), and I think that dedicating specific episodes almost entirely to the comedic beats (Murasaki's hospital recovery being a stellar example) is working out quite well. Now to see whether the season finale actually manages to impress me.

Best girl spot goes to Honey, by the way. She's quite eccentric, her 'avatar' shown when she activates her ability is hilarious (in a good way), and of course she shares her English VA (Margaret McDonald) with Chinubyo's Rikka - quite adorable as far as I'm concerned .

[MojaveRena]

Episode 1 of Angels of Death (Dub) = A great first episode, I'm gonna stick with this anime.
Also I could have sworn the English VA for the scythe-wielding guy was voiced by Austin Tindle - Turns out I was wrong, I'm glad they chose someone who has a powerful and psychotic voice for the role in question.
Rachel's English VA is a newbie and yet she sounds perfect for her role with her scared yet cute voice, and the mad scientist guy has just the right amount of "crazy" in his voice to be realistically believable. As you may have guessed, I'm really digging this dub.
I totally recommend checking out this anime in whatever language you prefer, if you are into horror shows.

Episode 1 of Chio's School Road (Dub) = Now this is hilarious! We have references to the Assassin's Creed game series and a Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow reference (I think..) all in the same episode. I'm a happy guy now.
I can relate to Chio being a socially awkward gamer, it's nice to have characters you can already understand since I am similar in real life.
I wasn't too sure what this show was about when I first started it, but now I'm glad to have watched the first episode.

Episode 3 of Grand Blue Dreaming = I am in two minds about this show, one part of me likes it since Grand Blue is my second favourite manga and I am just grateful it has been adapted. The other part of me is disappointed in the pacing of the anime, but I haven't given up on the show just yet.
Oh, and the OP is brilliant! I never skip it. It's so catchy, you start singing the song at work and embarrass yourself.

[Whiskeyjack19]

I watched both seasons of Valvrave the Liberator. It was ok. There were some things I liked quite a lot about it. The idea of an isolated colony trying to protect itself after the motherland has been conquered, the way piloting a Valvrave changes a person's body and how the pilots deal with that.

On the other hand I felt the show tried way too hard to have a deeper story than it needed adding in secret organizations and conspiracy's that were just so unnecessary. The main character was your typical reluctant combatant teenager that go hand in hand with mecha anime so that's really neither a plus or minus for the show. The only character I hated was Shoko, she's awful and stupid and everyone else in the show is stupid for giving her any real responsibilities. My final grievance is that there were certain aspects of characters and the Valvraves that didn't get revealed until the first half of season two when realistically they should have come up or at least been mentioned in season one.

[BlueSpark]

After recently reading an article about dark magical girl series and remembering that how our OS hosts praised the anime, I figured it was time I gave Yuki Yuna is a Hero a go.

I've got to say, this show took a long time to turn dark (relative to its short 12-episode runtime). But when it did, boy, was the payoff there! The cute girl antics and comedy were enough to tide me over for the first half, but I was eagerly awaiting the tragic plot twist (which the article had spoiled for me, unfortunately). And man, when it hit, it did so like a truck. I loved the meeting with the 'mysterious figure' in which the whole magical girl / hero concept was explained. It also cleverly tied Togo's situation in - I could pretty much figure out what was missing from her past right there, but I feel the show was subtle enough about it not to insult my intelligence.

Fu ended up claiming the best girl spot for me. Her "girl power" shtick was quite adorable. But more importantly, the emotional impact of the mini-arc about her and her sister was devastating. While watching its conclusion with tears in my eyes, I realized that in the entire arc, none of the tears these girls shed felt contrived. I could completely understand Fu's anguish, her grief (which was also part of an aptly chosen episode title) and what she decided to do afterwards.

Of course, Yuna was also an amazing character. Normally, goody-two-shoes like her tend to be uninteresting, but in a dark series like this, she's exactly what the group needed. Also, Karin's 'final stand' (which left her quite a mess) really tugged at my heartstrings, as well, given how much her disposition towards the other girls had changed since the early episodes. A cast of likeable characters all around. The fact that Karin was voiced by Sarah Williams - my 2nd favorite English VA - certainly helped, too .

What I could've done without was how fantastical/supernatural everything became by the end (i.e. the 'secret' of their world). I believe the show could've turned out just fine without that twist... But then again, Togo's arc wouldn't have worked the way it did in that case. I guess it just felt a bit convoluted to me, but that's a minor gripe.

Overall, definitely a show I'll remember and rewatch at some point. Here's hoping the 2nd season will also receive a dub in the future.

Next up will be my rewatch of Full Metal Panic! since the new season is just about to wrap up. Watched the first 4 episodes last night and had a blast with it .

[Crash Kamio]

Continuing my trek with Gundam and Legend of the Galactic Heros aside I recently decided to knock some OVAs off my list with the original 3 Devilmans. The first one was okay. It was edge lord stuff, little care given to the characters. It gave me nothing to care about, but overall was a fun ride. The 2nd was much better. Some care was given to the characters and it rounded them out a bit and made me care. Overall the 80s (2nd was was early 90s I believe?) style lended itself to Devilman so much. It was a joy to look at. Then the third one from the 2000s was great. Loved the alternate take on the ending. It had that Devilman theme that I just love. How humanity is flawed, and evil in times of turmoil. And this OVA captured it so well. Easily the best of the three.

Also decided to knock Your Name off my pile, I was disappointed overall. The comedy was good, they had me for half of it then it lost me as they piled the supernatural elements into it And I didn't like it. Some of it was well explained, but most of it felt rather forced and haphazardly thrown in for the sake of it. Like, I get it, I understand it and what they were going for. But dont like the execution. The theme is cool, the ending saved it from being bad, but overall I dont really like it. I totally get the appeal though. But it's not for me and I'll leave it there.

Oh well. On another note, enjoying Gundam quite a bit and LOTGH is still great. Enjoying where they're both going as of right now. That's about all I got to say about them for now.

[BlueSpark]

Finished the new season of Full Metal Panic! last night after rewatching the entire franchise. Gotta say, I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed the ride, even after all these years. And I have to give it mad props for getting even me mildly excited for the mecha action scenes.
While Invisible Victory managed to entertain me, I'm inclined to call it the weakest installment in the FMP series. Some observations in no particular order:

This season sure gave us a romantic 'bomb' right off the bat. I mean, Sousuke asking Kaname to hold hands? Sounds like there was some serious off-screen character development. Not that I mind, being a fan of the genre and all :>. And then there was Kaname's decision right at the end that also got me cheering for her (although her change of heart was a bit abrupt/hamfisted).

The 1st story arc of Invisible Victory was weird in that it was more reminiscent of a season finale rather than a start. I mean, the stakes were sky-high on both fronts (Sousuke's and Tessa's). However, I like how it led to a time skip (which I can't deny I have a thing for, in general) and to a very interesting premise for the 2nd arc.

The CGI visuals for the mechs were so-so in my opinion. No one can deny that it made their movements infinitely more fluent. At the same time, it made them look more... mechanical, I guess. Which should be fitting in the narrower sense of the word , but it's a mixed bag overall. Either way, I don't hold it against the series to go this route.

As for the English dub, all the major roles were reprised by the original actors, which is great. I did notice that Marduquez (spelling?) and Al were voiced by other people. But then there's the new Urzu 1, who was played by the same VA as before, but sounded like he had a weird speech impediment ... no idea what that was about.

Is it just me, or did Sousuke throw out way too many hollow or outright useless one-liners? This isn't something I've ever noticed in any other anime, but here, it ended up annoying me a little after a while. Single-sentence monolog: "I can't beat him in straight-up combat" - yeah, we kinda noticed that when the enemy AS was revealed to be a vastly superior model. And when he was chasing you around the battlefield like a hunted rabbit.

On a bright note, I loved Tessa's plan at the beginning of the 3rd arc . She had me completely fooled. That was brilliant (and shows how good of an actor she apparently is).

So, the first FMP season to end on a cliffhanger... At least the final screen hinted at a continuation. Let's hope it's not an empty promise.

[Eira]

Finally got around to forcing myself to finish Comic Girls & Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online. Both shows from last season that I had kinda let just hang around and had been very slow on actually finishing them. But now I’ve got them both done and can move on.

I’m also in the middle of learning Japanese cause my girlfriend is from japan and so I’ll be moving there to live with her hopefully next year. So I’m in a rigorous Japanese training program to help me learn it in a rather fast time, enoug for me to move to japan and get a job atleast.

A common tip online is that watching anime actually does work but only if you turn off the subs and pay attention so I’ve decided to do that with Yuru Camp one of my favourite shows from last season and it’s a very chill anime that’s pretty easy to follow, I’ve alreayd seen it already so it’s not like I’ll miss anything but I’ll just watch it regularly without subs and try to absorb what I can.

[Chris]

Finally got around to forcing myself to finish Comic Girls & Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online. Both shows from last season that I had kinda let just hang around and had been very slow on actually finishing them. But now I’ve got them both done and can move on.

I’m also in the middle of learning Japanese cause my girlfriend is from japan and so I’ll be moving there to live with her hopefully next year. So I’m in a rigorous Japanese training program to help me learn it in a rather fast time, enoug for me to move to japan and get a job atleast.

A common tip online is that watching anime actually does work but only if you turn off the subs and pay attention so I’ve decided to do that with Yuru Camp one of my favourite shows from last season and it’s a very chill anime that’s pretty easy to follow, I’ve alreayd seen it already so it’s not like I’ll miss anything but I’ll just watch it regularly without subs and try to absorb what I can.

Very true supposed to emulate the immersion factor. Good luck. Keep at it. Life loves to interfere with goals. Don’t let anything beat you.

[Eira]

I’m also in the middle of learning Japanese cause my girlfriend is from japan and so I’ll be moving there to live with her hopefully next year. So I’m in a rigorous Japanese training program to help me learn it in a rather fast time, enoug for me to move to japan and get a job atleast.

A common tip online is that watching anime actually does work but only if you turn off the subs and pay attention so I’ve decided to do that with Yuru Camp one of my favourite shows from last season and it’s a very chill anime that’s pretty easy to follow, I’ve alreayd seen it already so it’s not like I’ll miss anything but I’ll just watch it regularly without subs and try to absorb what I can.

Very true supposed to emulate the immersion factor. Good luck. Keep at it. Life loves to interfere with goals. Don’t let anything beat you.

Omg, thank you. It actually means a lot to just have someone tell me to keep going, thanks it means a lot. Since I’m also trying to balance university work and my part time job, it’s a lot to handle. So even if it was super easy for you to leave that comment it means to lot to just have that little bit or extra drive and fuel to keep me going!

[BlueSpark]

it means to lot to just have that little bit or extra drive and fuel to keep me going!

For what it's worth, I had a girlfriend living in Estonia some years ago (a small country not too far east from Germany) and was tentatively entertaining the thought of moving there to be with her. That never panned out, but I know the drive that love can instill in you to take on that kind of challenge (There's my sappy line for the day). So I hope you'll pull through the preparation phase right now and that your girlfriend will actively support you once you actually get there.

To touch on the pertinent topic of the thread briefly, I rewatched Madoka Magica (by way of all 3 movies) this weekend. It's weird for me to think how Andrew explained that he liked the recap movies so much better than the series because they were more concise. It doesn't really add up for me: Both movies combined have a runtime of 4 hours, while the 13-episode series is roughly 5 hours. So they couldn't really have cut that much content. I can't really say that I liked this way of watching Madoka better or worse than the TV series; the movies 1 and 2 did a perfectly adequate job of telling the same story in a different format.

As for the 3rd movie, Rebellion, it's still an enigmatic mindf*** that I don't really know how to process. And that's regarding both the story and the visuals (especially towards the end). Dear Gen Urobuchi, please stop trying to make my head explode... Although I do hope we get an anime continuation to the story at some point.

Aaand here's my obligatory mention of how I love the living c**p out of Mami's character theme, "Believing in Justice." I actually got teary-eyed getting to listen to it again while watching her blast bad guys. It's a little embarassing, but music is supposed to touch you emotionally, right? This track is definitely a winner for me.

On another bright note, I started Shirobako yesterday (German dubs for the win, once again). I'm in an odd position in that I know the biggest draw of this show for most fans is how it educates watchers about the anime production process. I've honestly never been very interested in how animes are created. However, I am enjoying the humor and the slice-of-life tone a lot. Also, Aoi is shaping up to be an incredible protagonist akin to Sakura Quest's Yoshino in that she has the relatability, honesty and simple charm to 'drive' the entire show.