Even more shows I’ve watched, and there are some pretty good ones still!
Aiura: Cute high school girls doing cute things. The little one gets mistaken for an elementary school student, then there’s the wacky one, and the subdued level headed foil.
root – yes, it’s that genre, but it’s only got three girls! Regardless, it’s great fun and well done. Nice art, nice designs, nice animation, an amusing OP that’s obsessed with crabs, and Steve Jobs. It’s too bad that at one minute, it takes up 25% of the episode! Way too short, wraps up a gag and makes you feel like it’s just getting started and then it ends!
risu – it’s amazing how little they get into each episode, but how much that little works. The backgrounds are probably the best of anything I’ve watched this season so far. The character art reminds me of the Ichigo Mashimaro TV animation (not the manga), though I don’t think it’s any of the same people involved. It’s simple and wonderful, like last season’s Yama no Susume but better. Time ot go eat some crab… A-
Sparrow’s Hotel: Adventures at a hotel staffed by a buxom assassin?
root – what year is it again? Crude art, crude animation, crude designs, crude gags. As opposed to Aiura, it’s a good thing it’s only 3 minutes long. Any longer and I would not bother.
risu – this is definitely reaching out for the retro fans with it’s dated style and storyline. It is briefly funny, but not really all that good. It is definitely done with current digital finishing though, as evidenced by every characters grotesque bloody mouth color! C-
Yuyushiki: Three high school girl friends in the “Data Processing Club” which consists of looking up random things on the Internet.
root – for some reason this season it’s three cute girls doing cute things. decently good art, animation decently good but nothing outstanding, I can’t say i’m a big fan of the character designs, but they’ll do. Again, you need to be a fan of the cute girls doing cute things genre. This one while maybe not an outstanding example, is still entertaining and worth the full length watch.
risu – like root, I dislike the character design, but heck, what can the animation staff do when the original manga artwork is that way? Production quality is above average. The way the characters move is testament to the animation director actually paying attention to how people actually move and react. After Lucky Star and Nichijou, this is one of the few properties where those subtle nuances have been shown. This is not unlike the high school version of Yuru Yuri with a bit less overt yuri behavior. A-
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU: One of the Japanese long title shows, Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabu Kome wa Machigaitteiru. This is one of those with the isolationist male lead who chooses to be that way and doesn’t have much of a problem with it. His cynicism seems to be a psychological device. The teacher/advisor pairs him up with the seemingly cold elite girl in the service club.
root: not really breaking any new ground here. Pretty nice clean art and designs that are par for the course. It’s keeping me entertained, I’ll keep watching.
risu – the fact that it was a Shogakukan property made me wary at first, but now five episodes in, it’s not as bad as I expected. The animation quality is average, with run-of-the-mill backgrounds and ordinary character animation. Actually, as the show progresses, I feel the animation quality is degrading. I dislike the character designs. If you’re a people-hater, you’ll find all the hateable character architypes here. The three main characters come off like diluted versions of the three leads of Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru. And what’s up with the English title? The original works all had the English “My youth romantic comedy is wrong as I expected” subtitle already, which is actually better than what they’re calling it. WTF? C+
Little Witch Academia: Girl attending a young witches school inspired by childhood memories struggles as she’s not from a witch family. During one school exercise things get out of hand! A one off from a new animation studio created by escapees from Gainax.
root – This has quickly garnered much attention from the Net masses. Great animation, nice art, fun characters and designs. The story is simple and straightforward. Overall quite outstanding.
risu – quite good. The story isn’t really that novel and all the characters are well-established architypes, but the overall production is well executed. A
Photokano: Based on a galge that uses photographing the girls of the main characters school as its object.
root: decent art, passable animation, typical character designs. Typical characters, main character is Mr. average. Nice enough to look at, I’ll watch this when I have nothing else.
risu – the averageness was so overwhelming, I didn’t get past the first episode. The character animation was average, with somewhat poor technical accuracy. Watching a show involving photography where the animators can’t get the proportions and scale of a DSLR correct is like watching a combat anime where the firearms are wrong. C-
Oreimo 2: Continuation of Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai. Story is about main male character and his relationship with his cute younger sister. At first she seems cold toward him but he discovers that she is a closet otaku. With this discovery things warm up a bit.
root – you’ll need to have watched the first season to understand whats going on, but you’ll still be confused because it continues from the OVAs which I never saw. Art, animation, character designs continue unchanged, which are all average to above average. If you’re a fan of the first season, then you’ll be a fan of this, if not, the not.
risu – woy… seems I missed something! Not having seen the four OAV’s released after the first TV season makes understanding what’s going on a little challenging. Just suffice to say, the last episode of the first season was the “good ending”. The OAV’s rewind a little and progress to the “bad ending”, and the second TV season continues from there. Even with a different production studio, the overall animation feels unchanged, including the backgrounds and character art. The most noticeable change is the protagonist’s skin color is not the renal-failure olive tone of the first season. So far, so good. Production quality is good. B+
Attack on Titan: An alternate reality past has the last of humanity living in a community behind huge walls. The walls protected them from the giant Titans that were eating everyone. For a hundred years they lived in peace within the safety of these walls, although any that ventured out rarely returned unscathed. The story follows when suddenly this life is shattered with the appearance of some “super” Titans.
root – when I watched the first ep, it hooked me with its opening sequence of the skinless giant peering ominously over the wall. The ep tugged on the proper strings with it brutal events to set up the main characters. Upon rewatching it, the show did lose a fair amount of it’s luster. The art was actually for the most part average, the animation also for the most part pretty sparse. There’s a lot of unexplained elements, but that is intentional as the people also don’t know much. I’m finding this interesting enough.
risu – beyond the brief laugh I got out of the “attack of the anatomical dummies”, the late-iron age setting and socio-political backstory really disinterests me, and I dislike the character design. The wire-stunt fighting technology is goofy. I got three epsiodes in and that was it. Animation quality was a little better than average. C-
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