Nothing particularly newsworthy happened this month in the world of anime. Well, except that I bought Baccano wooh!
*cough* OK, anime ratings time.
A Grade
A- Steins;Gate
Episodes 9-13
It’s not necessarily that Steins;Gate has gotten better. People are too susceptible to going crazy when big plot twists go down, to the point that they don’t notice that these latest episodes haven’t been quite as well directed and paced as some of the earlier ones. Well, maybe that’s unfair. Episodes 12-13 were about the same level of quality as most of the rest of the series. The A- grade is for the realisation why Steins;Gate did all that development in the first half of the series. Talk about the careful build up of tension throughout the series, Steins;Gate has been fucking marvellous at that. Let’s see if the second half can deliver on its promises.
A- The Borrower Arrietty
Whether I enjoy a Ghibli or not comes down to where I am, what time it is, am I in the right mood, are the stars aligned correctly, did I have a bowel of cereal this morning, and so on. Basically, my enjoyment of a Ghibli is so erratic that trying to pin down why I like Arrietty that much more compared to other Ghibli flicks is difficult. Arrietty is my new second favourite Ghibli flick, after Porco Rosso. Sure I laughed at all the standard Ghibli tropes, like the perfect female lead, the rising hairdos when the characters get shocked, and the strong environmental message. But at least this time they realised that writing isn’t the strong point of Ghibli flicks, so they kept the plot as simple as possible, focusing mainly on giving us a wonderfully directed film that is so easy to sink into. Also having a simple plot means it doesn’t have the usual sucky Ghibli ending. Boy, I’ve sure said the word ‘Ghibli’ a lot in this paragraph.
B Grade
B Break Blade
Episode 5
There’s a part at the back of my mind, clamouring for attention when I think about Break Blade. It tries to point out the awful plot, the randomly introduced characters that we are given no time to care about before they are lopped off, and the war’s politics are so vague that I barely know who’s fighting who. However, this more critical part of my mind is generally silenced by the other, much larger part of my brain that shouts “GIANT ROBOTS, GLORIOUS BATTLES, QUEEN SIGYN’S RADIANT ASS” so generally my other half of my brain just skulks off to rewatch Berserk or Mushishi or something.
B Fireball Charming
Episodes 8-13
As much as I like the improved animation and Drossels new character design, I’m going to have to admit that Fireball Season 1 > Fireball Charming. Yes, Fireball Charming did try to mix things up a bit, but it seemed to forget to make jokes at times. Plus there were no stand out moments of comedic brilliance. Fireball had the invisible maids and the canned laughter. The best moment in Fireball Charming was Drossels monocycle spinning jump over Gedachtnis, and that was the animation that was brilliant, not the joke. Still a fantastic series, but season 1 was better.
B- Kaiji Season 2
Episodes 9-12
Not the best Kaiji has been, mainly because it’s not focusing on Kaiji being awesome. It’s not Kaiji doing the gambling. It’s been the other guy he’s settled in with, trying to take down The Bog. But ultimately, it’s still Kaiji. Noses still are massive. Men are still crying everywhere. The narrator still can’t keep it in his pants. And the background is still filled with nonstop zawa zawa zawa zawa zawa zawa zawa zawa zawa zawa zawa zawa.
B- [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
Episodes 8-11
You know, I think I’ll just copypaste my final lines from my episode 11 episodic post
Characters with well-developed motivations but near non-existent personalities. Great animation quirks but with horrible CGI characters that don’t mesh well with the scenery. Fantastic ideas with it’s setting, but pulling methods of solving issues out of nowhere. Intense fight scenes that make not an ounce of sense. [C] was far from a waste of time to watch. But it had several glaring flaws that prevent it from ever being held up as an example of an anime that Did It Right.
B- Tiger and Bunny
Episodes 10-13
On one hand, I was glad to see Tiger and Bunny ramp up the tension and bring the plot to the fore. More importantly, the buddy cop relationship between Tiger and Bunny actually feels natural now (‘natural’ in this instance meaning OMG BL VIBES EVERYWHERE). Unfortunately this improvement was balanced out in equal measures by introducing a sucky villain. Nope, didn’t like Jake. Never liked Jake. Don’t like that sort of character. They’re not fun, nor scheming, nor frightening. He was just a bit of a jackass really. The kind of person who, if you knew them in real life, you’d simply ignore them and not give them the time of day to inflate their ego. He’s a brat, and brats aren’t fun to watch.
B- Hanasaku Iroha
Episodes 10-13
The ‘Ohana to Tokyo’ arc was the best Hanasaku Iroha has ever been. It brought to head her pouting and indecisiveness over Kou, serving to actually develop her character instead of being a goofy, happy-go-lucky genki girl. It also answered the question of why Kou and her mummy issues weren’t as important to her as they once were (without spoiling, it’s a change in her own priorities). Most importantly though, it brought back Ohana’s mum, who is far and away the best character in the show. Imagine if every abandoned children in anime had parents as awesome as this, yet they were kept off screen for the entirety of the show? Think of all the anime could have been saved by an Ohana’s mum character.
C Grade
C+ Blue Exorcist
Episodes 8-11
Look Blue Exorcist. I like that you don’t do what some other shounens do. That you don’t have incredibly long, drawn out fights where both characters stare at each other across the room, explaining their powers and having internal monologues before finally having 30 seconds of intense action before going back to explaining the moves they have just done and having even more internal monologues. I like that you’ve centred in on and emphasised the relationship between the two brothers (OMG MORE BL VIBES). But for christ sake, that beach episode was retarded. I’d like to see the plot appear sometimes soon.
D Grade
D+ Nichijou
Episodes 10-11
Dropped. Beautifully animated with fantastic music and ingenious ways of shooting each scene, but for what? Jokes that make not an ounce of sense. In fact, I refuse to call them jokes. Jokes have meaning. They have a punchline. They make some sort of sense instead of being random for the sake of random. I give up on you Nichijou. I wanted to like you. I wanted a moe Cromartie High School. And yes, you had the occasional moment of brilliance. But nope, KyoAni strikes again. Enjoy your shitty sales.
D Katte ni Kaizou
Episode 1
whut
D- Ano Hana
Episodes 8-11
I was willing to give Ano Hana a pass. I’d throw it into the Toradora category of “decent show, not really my thing”. But that lulzy final episode soiled the entire experience. It stopped being funny and started to be actually a bit depressing how much they overblew everything. It was like watching Hellsing Ultimate again, except this time they overkilled on melodrama instead of overkilling…well, overkilling overkill. It destroyed what goodwill I had towards the series. Oh well, at least there will always be Anaru’s nice bum to remember.
E Grade
E Deadman Wonderland
Episodes 8-11
With every episode it slowly clicks into realisation exactly how dreadful Deadman Wonderland is. Asides from the old ‘making it up as we go along’ syndrome that infects every part of this series, it’s how it revels in its own grotesqueness that is a major turn off. It’s exactly like those hyper violent OVA’s of old. The ones that, if they were a kid in the playground, they would be the one you’d laugh at until they killed a dog to show how badass they were. This is the series that listens to Linken Park and buys flick knives, but, and here’s the best part, still lives with their parents. For all the revelling in its own gory nature, Deadman Wonderland doesn’t actually have the balls to kill off an actual important character. Fun to laugh at sometimes, but otherwise a truly dreadful show.
E Ore no Imouto True Route OVA
Episode 15
Quick Kirino! Ignore this great opportunity that stands before you. Throw away this scholarship that was given to you, abandoning your new friends you met in Mericaw and fly back with me! Your incestuous brother, who totally ignores the advances of my underclassman who I clearly have the hots for because I am an incestuous idiotic twat. What a happy ending! Truly the rightful balance in nature had been restored. So much for a True Route alternate ending that actually made sense when we’ve got imouto lovers to pander to! Bleargh
F Grade
F+ Spelunker Sensei
Oh wow. The list of things wrong with this is quite extraordinary, especially considering the length of it. A comedy that couldn’t have been less funny if it tried. Animation that I could have done better if I drew it with a pencil clenched between my arse cheeks. I mean, it’s such a simple concept, yet to fuck it up this badly is phenomenal. I’m almost speechless. This might just require a terribad video review.
The Cart Driver 
“KyoAni strikes again. Enjoy your shitty sales.”
I take your “popularity equals quality” claim, and raise to “millions of flies cant be wrong”.
He’s not saying that it’s shit because it doesn’t sell, he’s saying it deserves its poor sales because it’s shit.
What anon said
I agree with you so much about Blue Exorcist. I love the characters and think they deserve better-written episodes, not a random beach episode that shows how much Rin loves sea salt ice cream. Sigh.
And I had to laugh at your description of Deadman Wonderland – while I’ve been watching it and enjoying it, your description is pretty perfect. 😀 The manga is a lot better though and I’m hoping it will end somewhat decently.
Was the beach chapter based on some manga omake like the last filler or was it their own bad idea?
Absolutely no idea. Only really just started on the manga. ^^;
Hmm, Oreimo ends in incest afterall? Maybe I will watch it!
Oh goodness, someone agrees that AnoHana was terrible? You must be a troll!
Out of curiosity, do you despise the Professor from Nichijou? I get the feeling if KyoAni cut her segment entirely the quality of the show would increase by at least X0%.
But… Sakamoto! Where would we be without him?
I don’t particularly like them, but I don’t think I’d have been that much more likely to continue the show if they weren’t there. The problem runs deeper than that
You’re wrong, Scamp.
Kyousuke is not incestuous but attracted to girls like his sister and her yandere model friend.
Yes, his behavior is still stupid and ruined the end of the ‘True End’ (at least for me), still, it could be worse.
Damn F+. Has there ever been an F-?
F- is reserved for the lowest of the lowest.
I gave the finale of Rio Rainbow Gate an F. Not an F-, but a straight F never the less.
It totally deserved it
As long as my Steins Gate doesn’t have a low grade.
freudian slip? D: lol.
bl vibes? you have now caught my interest. maybe another time, though. break blade does sound like it’s right up my alley, however. god i love high octane high action mecha shounen, even if the plot isn’t groundbreaking. perhaps i’ll try it out once all the eps come out. can’t be bothered with trying to remember what happened every month or so.
hana iro, you kill my ship (for now), but you’ve finally become decent enough for me to want to continue to watch you for other reasons. if they pair ohana with tohru, however, i’m jumping ship.
Break Blade is cool if you like pretty mecha battles. Well, not pretty. Clunky and ugly and grungy and oh so detailed and awesome mecha battles
While I don’t care if you liked AnoHana or not, it’s surprising that you have Iroha such a huge pass for it’s own melodrama just because it had an off-stage character you liked (at least that’s how I’m reading it).
I wonder if it comes down to whether you’ve lived that particular drama yourself or not? I know I’m more willing to give a melodramatic show a pass when it resonates with me.
I’m enjoying both shows – I’ve lost a very close friend and been hung up on it, and also had a shitty parent who I still wanted to love so badly that I ultimately forgave them. But both undermine their own efforts by being far too dramatic.
Nope, I’ve never experienced anything similar in either show. Maybe my life is just dorama free or something, but I rarely find myself deriving enjoyment due to connecting with the characters and the incidents. Hence why I prefer larger than life stories I guess.
The BIG difference between AnoHana and HanaIro is the latter doesn’t try to shove its drama down your throat. I don’t really agree with your statement that HanaIro is too dramatic by any stretch. It has sense of humour about its drama, and actually restrains itself a bit.
Sure, I just feel Iroha shoves a lot down your throat as well, including the drama. You can’t seriously be telling me that last Tokyo arc wasn’t contrived to force some drama 🙂
They just have the time and good sense to break up the drama with a little bit of comedy and slice of life, and they have a huge cast of normal, tangential characters to ground the show a bit.
Haven’t watched any of AnoHana, but I can say that Ohana might be one of the stupidest characters I’ve ever seen in an anime. I don’t even know how to express the rage that washes over me every time she opens her mouth.
As Hogart said, if they didn’t break it up with the other characters and the running of the inn, it would be the worse kind of insufferable melodrama, the sort that only occurs thanks to characters that don’t have to brain cells to bang together inside their oversized animu noggins.
That said, I’m still watching because it’s so very pretty, and I have a hard time dropping something D=
you’re right, if hana iro was all drama all the time, it would suck. which is why it was smart and added in slice-of-life and humor in between. that’s just smart pacing.
i don’t really care for ohana’s character at all, but for me, the difference between hana iro’s tokyo arc and the one ep of ano hana which made me never want to watch it again was that in hana iro, dramatic scenes were simply displayed and that was all. no reminding us that OMG OHANA IS GROWING UP NOW or maybe have her constantly babbling that she was miserable or something. she just knew something was wrong but didn’t know what it was, culminating in a breakdown. ano hana kept reminding me that the guy character was traumatized by something, as if by the 12th time they repeated it, i’d finally feel bad for him.
honestly ohana’s breakdown and the scenes preceding it was one of the best portrayals of teen-girl angst i’ve seen.
What gw_kimmy said
Why all the hate on Nichijou? First psgels, then you… 😦 I would put it in the “crazy awesome” category, and I enjoy it. Maybe I just like the humour and you don’t?
But hey, at least you like Tiger & Bunny now~ BL vibes banzai!
Because, you know, you’re secretly a fujioshi trapped in a straight males body.
Also, we need Baccano in Germany. Meh. When the day comes you guys get Madoka and we get nothing, I will rage. Or I will at least try to.
No kidding. When I watch Nichijou I have a smile right accross my face. Cromartie high was similar but nichijou does it even better.
Honestly I think I know what the issue is, one must be willing to have fun in order to enjoy something. One can be miserable in Disney land* all it takes is the “right” attitude.
*only an example, honestly I don’t think I would like disney land =\
I believe the term is “fudanshi”. But Scamp still has a long way to go before he becomes one. 😉
I think that you must have been in a bad mood while evaluating these shows, still pointing out all the weaknesses correctly.
I agree that the more frequent plot twists can easily camouflage potential weaknesses in Steins;Gate, inducing crazy S;G fanboying. I realised this while writing an exalted hymn about an episode that ended at the same moment where it began.
Studio Ghibli movies: I will watch it together with my children as something we all enjoy.
With the latest arc of Iroha it finally reached me why is good instead of mediocre. Still not a big deal IMO.
Even I was surprised but I have little to say about you dropping Nichijou. I say for the last time, randomness for the sake of randomness can be funny as hell. For me at least. BTW it’s a pretty high grade for a dropped show.
Ano Hana: it wasn’t that bad. They did a decent work building up all the shit that came crashing down, only bad things were those rivers of tears and comparing 5-year olds to 17-year-olds.
Spelunker shit got erased from my hard drive after 4 minutes.
On a side note, I have watched Mugen no Ryvius and no, its not better than those you ranked under it. My examples are Monster and Evangelion (you marked the wrong one as anti-climatic conclusion, End of Eva totally owns lame-ass attack of Captain Vicuss and so on). It was stiil top quality, though.
I was rather negative in most of those short reviews, wasn’t I? Oh well, the scores I gave probably give a better representation of how I really feel anyway
My decision to carry on watching Nichijou all depends on the length of skirt in Nano’s new school uniform… now that’s pretty worrying!
I was so happy with my baccano dvd purchase… right up till the point I realised there was a US blu-ray set out there. Damn it!
Oh wow, you actually liked Arrietty? I thought it was good for the first half and then LOLCRAPCONFLICT for the second.
Tiger & Bunny is still gay and still completely perfect. God, I fucking love this show. Is it wrong if this thing’s probably prevented the dreaded burnout? That fucking Kotetsu. That fucking Barnaby. THAT FUCKING SKY HIGH MAN, THAT FUCKING SKY HIGH. Feels good man.
alrightfinestein;gateisfuckingqualityshitfuckyou
For some reason, I am just really really loving Blue Exorcist. It’s so strange and weird to me, because for some reason it’s just fucking fun. I’m pretty sure that the plot will kick start tomorrow.
Deadman Wonderland? More like Deadman Wondershit amirite
I’m enjoying Nichijou, but only because I really love the parts with Nano, Sakamoto, and the Professer. I seem to be the only one who does…
Also fuckyeahbaccano! Finally jumped on the train eh? I got mine back last Christmas. :3 Shit feels good.
I watched Dead Leaves today on my sisters HD TV. I know exactly what I watched, but at the same time I don’t. Can I just call Imaishi a genius already? Please?
By the way Scamp, have you seen Noein? What do you think about it? My friend is making me watch it, and so far my impression of it is YURI LOWENTHAL AND CRISPIN FREEMAN IN THE SAME SHOW FUCK YEAH
But does it stay this quality? Not QUALITY as in lolshityart but quality as in good.
We know you wrote ‘quality’ the first time and not ‘QUALITY’. No need to point out something so useless. Scamp understands well enough that ‘QUALITY’ is the opposite of quality. That’s the fucking joke, please don’t ruin it.
I liked Noein more first time around. Really, really liked it first time around. Second time around, not so much.
Screw you, the animation is awesome (for the most part)
Spelunker Sensei is the most awkward thing I have ever watched. I had the same feeling as when a stand-up comic is bombing and you want to laugh just to break the tension. A terribad video review is in order.
If anything, I liked Spelunker’s theme song.
“whut.”
Yes.
I do believe the Ao No Excorcist anime is failing. hard. Manga> Anime
ALSO;
OMYGOODGALOSHES; I FINALLY SEE SOMETHING IN F GRADE BESIDES YOUR TAGS!!!
No. As far as adaptation (of the canon material) goes, AnE is doing an excellent, if not almost perfect, job. Fillers are unavoidable, and the ones we’ve got so far are pretty decent if you ask me.
Steins;Gate and Tiger & Bunny are definitely my summer favourites. I’ll have to check out that Ghibli movie too if you say it’s good.
I always thought I just didn’t “get” Nichijou’s humour. I’m glad it wasn’t just me. I would love if someone just cut out all the jokes that are actual JOKES and compiled them together so I wouldn’t have to sit through all the weird, non-jokes.
Also, I would love to see a Terribad review of Spelunker Sensei.
Of course you’re not alone. If you were the only person to not get Nichijou, you would be special! And that cannot happen. Nobody on this planet is special. There is always someone else that thinks the same as you. So don’t worry. You’ll never be alone. Or special for that matter.
I worry for you if you sometimes have intestines of cereal. That’s just… gross man. But more importantly, I’m glad to see you enjoyed Arrietty as well. I thoroughly enjoyed the style of the setting of little people (which sadly got forgotten when that boy runs around the big house trying to help Arrietty), the use of common household objects for something completely different just because of the scale has always interested me. The creativity an artist can have with that. I agree that it was well directed. A good directorial debut I would say. Now let’s hope Miyazaki will stay completely out of the next Ghibli film the guy makes and see what happens.
@Fireball Charming, I prefer the second season. The jokes in the first season are not as great as you make them sound if you ask me, and the second season does so much more alongside making more of the same quality jokes. The animation is just stunning, glad we can both agree on that. Also, Empress Drossel “Hips” > Duchess Drossel “Miku”.
Obligatory zawa zawa.
Jake was a fine villain. An over-conceited cunt that got his comeuppance. This short arc’s main goal was to bond our heroes Tiger & Bunny. That was done well enough if you ask me.
Hanasaku Iroha is still great fun. And yes for more sexy mother on screen. Episode 13 is one of the best episodes of the show thus far. Sadly they might be ruining a streak with that obligatory swimsuit episode in #14. Though who cares, cute character design + cute swimsuits can get me through 1, one and just one, episode.
Suggestion: Don’t watch shows like: Azumanga Daioh, Cromartie High School or Astro Fighter Sunred. They’re all the same, and I love all of them. You still have to learn a few things about jokes. :¬)
Ano Hana sadly realized that episode was the last episode of the show… in episode 11. Cramming eternal fountains of tears in the eyes of all the characters was just too much and made the ending awkward, forced and I couldn’t do anything but laugh in tears at how horrible they ended it.
No comment on the other stuff since I don’t watch it, or just have no comment. I only got myself caught up on Steins;Gate 12 and 13 an hour ago, so yeah.
As an aside, I would like to invite you to Google+ when the invites open again, but I would need an e-mail address of you for that.
ooh google+
Do I need to use my gmail address? I have one, but I never use it. My other e-mail (aka the one I actually use) is on the About page
The invite should, possibly just work fine when send to your Irish mail. You do need a Google account though to log in, but it allows you to set that up, which will automatically be connected to your Gmail and Reader anyway. Enjoy waiting for an invite. It will come, eventually (unless Google opens it up before opening invites again with me present).
Herp. Seems you’re already in. Forgetting random stuff sucks. At least you’re in my following circle now.
I’d recommend Azazel for you to watch but if you don’t like Nichijou you probably won’t like a quarter of Azazel either.
Nichijou is shit comparing to Azazel, don’t ruin it’s reputation.
(shit… Beelzebub?)
Nah, Azazel is fun. But Nichijou is also fun in its own way. Altough not as fun as Azazel.
And Beelzebub doesn’t have it’s manga quality, so the anime isn’t that great. Those bastards kept making non-plot related episodes.