Board 8 > Anime & Manga Discussion Topic 170.5: dark times

(+) Yeah! (+)

I could've sworn One Punch Man was this season :(
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tazzyboyishere posted...

Summer Write-ups from someone who isn't a fucking loser

tazzyboyishere posted...

Owarimonogatari 2nd Season
I've never been more sick of a franchise than I am with Monogatari. I'm not putting myself through this anymore.

false promises
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I don't even remember what happened in Owari because I was too busy bashing my head into concrete.
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Would explain why you didn't enjoy the season.
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How many more LNs do they have left to adapt anyways?

I think it helped me enjoy it more
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my summer:

kakegurui
owarimonogatari

and some shows that are continuing from spring (hero academia, re creators , sakura quest) are all that I'm planning to watch. I'll probably add a couple others after seeing initial reactions though
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Been finishing up some stuff from Spring. I'll do a full ranking but thoughts on what I finished so far.

Attack on Titan S2
Personally I thought the start of this was kind of... lame? I don't know but it didn't really start to get good until the castle part and it went up from there. What it did lack though were the truly epic fights from the first season. While we find out some decent information and stuff it does feel like a lot of the time was just spent running around doing nothing. Regardless it was still pretty entertaining and I appreciate the added character and story development they've added.

Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor
Despite what the uniforms might have you believe, this is not a fan service show. It's more of a... weird romance/comedy/action thing? I don't know. Like I'd call it a harem but it's not quite that. One thing it has going for it is that I really like how they handled Glenn Radars. Even as the viewer who knows he's stronger than he's letting on, he continually surprises in what he can do. There's really not as much actual magic battling going on though which is kind of annoying. The girls are alright, there is the cat girl who is a tsundere, she's cute. Also the nice blond type. There is also the loli. I think later on the show just digs bad guys out the ass with no real set up. It would have been nice if one of them was like more present throughout.

Love Tyrant
Overall this is a pretty funny show. The reactions of the characters really make it though. Guri is great too, one of the best designs of the season. Shiramine is also pretty appealing in the looks department too imo. However, something greatly annoys me. Besides Guri I dont think I'd hang out with anyone in the show. Like over half the cast is actually just downright mean people.

Armed Girl's Machiavellism
In terms of like the fights this show is pretty good. Each girl has a unique set of abilities that our hero has to try to counter. It's not like the fucking chess of battle girl shows or whatever but it'll do. It's too bad almost everything else is pretty shallow. There is a pseudo harem aspect but no real romance aspect to it. All the girls have pretty good designs. There is also a fucking bear that boxes which is pretty great. The comedy is not bad, but I won't say it's like a "funny" show. Not a bad watch, but seems like it could have been something that was really part of a very long shounen or something.

Tsugumomo
Kiriha carries this show. Like each episode is pretty entertaining but I'd say it does get better towards the end as they actually start working towards something.

The Royal Tutor
After a somewhat slowish start I now think this was one of the better shows I've seen (or at least finished) this season. They handle developing each character very well and you can see a clear change for each of them at the end of the show. Not groundbreaking, but well executed.

Natsume's Book of Friends S6
While it's not really fair, this is one of the best shows this season. It's really more of the same but the episodic stories this time around are just about all well done overall. There's not as much character or story stuff as past seasons but not a lot to complain about.
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summer will be my catch-up season, which means I'll somehow end up watching 5 shows
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So...where the hell is Re:Zero? The anime isn't even licensed in the US yet. That was one of the most popular shows of the year.
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on crunchyroll
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Funny.
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There's no way America gets Petelgeuse right
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swordz9 posted...

Mac Arrowny posted...

Also Ed gave it a 9 and BK gave it an 8 so I'm not the only one who liked it :p

Well I dunno about BK, but I wouldn't be surprised if Eddv gave it a high score because vintage "dark horse" show he likes randomly. I remember he gave that one anime about girls wishing on a rock or something a 9 or 10 while nobody else liked or finished it I think (well aside from finishes basically every anime ever Chrono1219).

I actually dropped it.
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swordz9 posted...

How many more LNs do they have left to adapt anyways?

still going~
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Oh, I know he's milking it until he dies. I'm asking how many they have left to animate out of what he has out. They gotta be almost caught up by now.

in the last eight years, 16 volumes have been animated and 18 have been written
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swordz9 posted...

LapisLazuli posted...

I have several arcs of Mono to catch up on, but both it and Shaft still have never done me wrong!

Really hyped for Fate/EXTRA.

Guess you didn't watch some of their "GREAT" series then. They have some not so good old stuff and stuff that isn't really new, but only like a couple years old or so. I think Mac is like the ONLY person here who cared about their Sasami-san show.

swordz9 posted...

Mac Arrowny posted...

Also Ed gave it a 9 and BK gave it an 8 so I'm not the only one who liked it :p

Well I dunno about BK, but I wouldn't be surprised if Eddv gave it a high score because vintage "dark horse" show he likes randomly. I remember he gave that one anime about girls wishing on a rock or something a 9 or 10 while nobody else liked or finished it I think (well aside from finishes basically every anime ever Chrono1219).

Literally obsessed with me.

Sasami-San was a good show so fuck off.
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Eddv posted...

swordz9 posted...

LapisLazuli posted...

I have several arcs of Mono to catch up on, but both it and Shaft still have never done me wrong!

Really hyped for Fate/EXTRA.

Guess you didn't watch some of their "GREAT" series then. They have some not so good old stuff and stuff that isn't really new, but only like a couple years old or so. I think Mac is like the ONLY person here who cared about their Sasami-san show.

swordz9 posted...

Mac Arrowny posted...

Also Ed gave it a 9 and BK gave it an 8 so I'm not the only one who liked it :p

Well I dunno about BK, but I wouldn't be surprised if Eddv gave it a high score because vintage "dark horse" show he likes randomly. I remember he gave that one anime about girls wishing on a rock or something a 9 or 10 while nobody else liked or finished it I think (well aside from finishes basically every anime ever Chrono1219).

Literally obsessed with me.

Sasami-San was a good show so fuck off.

dark horse pick for post of the seaaon
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th3l3fty posted...

in the last eight years, 16 volumes have been animated and 18 have been written

what show are we talking about here, monogatari series?
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Been watching Gundam IBO, and finished the first season just now. Was the worst Gundam I've seen by a pretty large margin. It did have some pretty cool things about it - solid pacing for a Gundam, Mika and Orga are great MCs, and the early brutality of the series was pretty refreshing. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the cast was pretty bad, especially the almost uniformly boring villains (Carta and Mcgillis were cool at least). The worldbuilding is awful, the animation is worse than the last few Gundams I've seen, and the writing is just the worst. It also fell prey to the usual Gundam flaw of a bunch of having a bunch of meaningless battles that end inconclusively. Usually having good main characters ensures that a series will be good, so it's a shame that they managed to screw this up so badly. Unfortunately, the series doesn't focus as much on them as it could, instead trying to show a wide variety of perspectives, and failing at it pretty miserably.

I kinda want to watch S2 anyway, since the main parts are pretty good, but I'm afraid only more terrible writing awaits. Also S1 was oddly conclusive??
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Huh. Owarimonogatari is going to be some sort of two part special airing on August 12 and August 13. How strange.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

Huh. Owarimonogatari is going to be some sort of two part special airing on August 12 and August 13. How strange.

Is it? I mean, it's strange in general and that we're just now finding out, but isn't that exactly how most of the last few seasons aired?
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Owarimonogatari part 1 was a full season
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Finished Love Tyrant. I dunno, there was a fair amount to like in this, and it could be pretty funny, but other than the comedy I don't think it was that great, and the comedy definitely decreased over time. Not much romance progression due to the MC being kinda shit, and other than Guri the girls weren't super amazing. Side characters were generally pretty cool though, especially Coraly. And Guri really was great. Managed to basically save every scene she appeared in. Even if something dumb was happening, she'd appear out of nowhere and ruin everything and it'd be awesome. Shikimi was kinda the opposite a fair amount of the time, unfortunately. I think she should've had less screentime.

On the plus side, the OP is fantastic. Had a cool somewhat dissonant but catchy feel to it.
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BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Owarimonogatari part 1 was a full season

Hmmmm, guess that's odd if the first season was normal, though the 3 arcs prior were individually released at once, right?

Maybe Aniplex has determined this results in more sales, and season 1 was a test case that helped verify that conclusion?
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Koyomimonogatari is the latest season, and it was 13 episodes. Streamed though. The two arcs before Owari were individually released.
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LapisLazuli posted...

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Owarimonogatari part 1 was a full season

Hmmmm, guess that's odd if the first season was normal, though the 3 arcs prior were individually released at once, right?

Maybe Aniplex has determined this results in more sales, and season 1 was a test case that helped verify that conclusion?

Last I saw/heard Monogatari anime sales were declining. I think it's because they increased in price or something and also partly since sales just seem to drop the longer an anime series goes on aside from a couple rare cases I guess

Monogatari sales have declined every season, but are still at blockbuster levels. It's mainly because all anime series have sales decline over time. At least it's not a serious decline like Titan (90% lower sales for S2).
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Mac Arrowny posted...

At least it's not a serious decline like Titan (90% lower sales for S2).

holy shit
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I can't even find sales data for Titan S2 vol.1. Just info that the estimate is much lower than normal.

Ok I found it, but also see people saying the vol.1 price for season 2 was way higher (like 20k~ yen to 6k~ yen) than S1 vol.1 because it contains more episodes

S2 ended up being way better than S1, too!

They just took too long. The fire burned out. I had 0 hype for season 2 before and during airing even KNOWING from the manga that is was gonna be better.
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Yeah, it was what like 4 years since S1 originally aired? That's basically forever in anime time.

It's different when it's some niche title. There weren't expectations for S2 of Durarara and The Eccentric Family. Titan couldn't really afford that wait, and it sounds like the conditions for making it were awful.
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I am still upset that Durarara!! literally got almost four times as many episodes as Baccano!

the greatest of injustices
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LapisLazuli posted...

It's different when it's some niche title. There weren't expectations for S2 of Durarara and The Eccentric Family. Titan couldn't really afford that wait, and it sounds like the conditions for making it were awful.

Uh, S1 of Durarara was also a massive hit, and S2 saw a decline of around 80%, sales-wise. Even more with S3 and S4.
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Really? Never got that impression. Guess western audiences didn't reflect that as much.
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I think it was pretty big in the West too. Moreso with women than men though.
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So I'm not doing a ranking because half of what I'm watching will carry over into the next season, and three of them that ended (LWA, AoT, Natsume) are all great, so no point in separating them. Also not caught up. So I'm just gonna post some thoughts as I finish!

Little Witch Academia
Probably going to be my AotY. As with most episodic shows, there were some misses, and it sort of suffers a little bit once it attempts to bring in a real plot at the end (Though a few twists and development were actually pretty great!), but I still think it was a ton of fun. Pretty much every character was great aside from Lotte and the food chick, and watching them interact and grow together was a blast. I can see people not liking this due to it's nature, as it's written like a Western show, and, well, people here probably like the Eastern style better for obvious reasons! But we got a pretty fantastic family-friendly cartoon with amazing animation, which I feel I can't really say about anything else besides Avatar. I will also warn not to go in expecting some sort of fantasy epic. This was 95% slice of life, just with a fantasy setting. Anyway, scored it a 10/10, which only ERASED got last year. Can't put it in my top 10 though, since there were a few slow episodes, and one or two that just kinda sucked. That's probably the biggest issue with something so episodic. Really hard to rate/rank....

Attack on Titan S2
Echoing Koala in that the first half just wasn't that good. Lacked any interesting plot developments or cool fights. Though the latter half was pretty damn solid! I don't really have a ton to say since there are so many spoilers, but it's does a great job at creating intrigue. Biggest issue is that not many questions from S1 were actually answered. Just sort of edging closer to what's going on while more questions arise. Hopefully it doesn't build up to something that's just fucking stupid though, because that's a shounen trope I'm sick of seeing. Overall, first season was better due to consistency. This one had higher highs though. THE REVEAL and following fight was probably the show's best moment.
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tazzyboyishere posted...

THE REVEAL and following fight was probably the show's best moment.

agreed, fucking amazing stuff
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last two episodes and the reveal/following fight were definitely the best moments/episodes in the entire series
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Little Witch Academia completed. It's kind of hard to say how I feel about this. I really liked the first OVA, but I can't remember that much about it at this point, partly because I've seen the sequel and the TV series since then, and partly because that's a few years ago now. I don't think I liked the TV series quite as much, but it's pretty good. Making it mostly episodic was an interesting choice. Most of the episodic episodes are pretty good, so I don't really mind. And the animation is awesome. Every Trigger show I watch makes me sad that Kill la Kill's animation wasn't better ;_;. The cast is solid, but not really incredible. I do like most of the characters, with Sucy/Akko/Constanze/Ursula all being pretty great. Even Andrew's much better than he first seemed like he'd be. I don't like Akko very much, though. She has her cool moments, but she's kinda annoying. It's harder to cheer for her than it should be. Think I feel the same as I do about, say, Luffy from One Piece. I like the story that kicks in too. The focus of it is silly at times, but that works in its own way. Results in some excellent moments too. Likable villain as well, though maybe it'd have been better for the villain's motivations to be explained a little better. Not totally sure what the end goal was. But yeah, some episodes I was enthralled, and the last episode was outstanding. Pretty great show overall.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

I do like most of the characters, with Sucy/Akko/Constanze/Ursula all being pretty great

Mac Arrowny posted...

I don't like Akko very much, though.

What
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Mentioning great characters and not naming Diana, how dare your opinions be so civilian.
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Mac Arrowny posted...

Finished Love Tyrant. I dunno, there was a fair amount to like in this, and it could be pretty funny, but other than the comedy I don't think it was that great, and the comedy definitely decreased over time. Not much romance progression due to the MC being kinda shit, and other than Guri the girls weren't super amazing. Side characters were generally pretty cool though, especially Coraly. And Guri really was great. Managed to basically save every scene she appeared in. Even if something dumb was happening, she'd appear out of nowhere and ruin everything and it'd be awesome. Shikimi was kinda the opposite a fair amount of the time, unfortunately. I think she should've had less screentime.

On the plus side, the OP is fantastic. Had a cool somewhat dissonant but catchy feel to it.

It's unfortunate MC is pretty forgettable/generic. But yeah Guri is the best easy but Yuzu and Akane can be good/funny. Shikmi I agree is the worst but I wouldnt say she's terrible
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tazzyboyishere posted...

Mac Arrowny posted...

I do like most of the characters, with Sucy/Akko/Constanze/Ursula all being pretty great

Mac Arrowny posted...

I don't like Akko very much, though.

What

Oops. That first Akko (the one I said is great) should be Diana. Diana is the great one.
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http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-06-28/stan-lee-deen-the-reflection-anime-reveals-new-cast-visual/.118125

I'll admit, I'm a little hyped.
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my bro stan lee
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Akko was the best character, y'all just jelly cuz I called waifu dibs first
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Whenever I see the words "Love Tyrant" I always think of the RE Tyrant in a high school setting.

I think that would be a great show.
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