Board 8 > Anime & Manga Discussion Topic 187: Not Baseball Season

(+) Yeah! (+)

Not great, but could be worse.


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As a fan of the game, I'm not touching the Persona 5 anime with a 10 foot pole.

Ill touch it, but only if they add good filler cast moments. I am still upset about that and the game has been out for a few days over a year now

Popcorn_Fairy posted...

As a fan of the game, I'm not touching the Persona 5 anime with a 10 foot pole.

You're really not missing much. Kind of show that should be watched while dicking around on your phone.
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It's inoffensive at worst tbh, I'm happy for more Persona 5 anything
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Speaking oooooof...

Enthusiasm

Megalo Box
Hinamatsuri
HeroAca
Tada-kun
GGO
Magical Girl Ore
Magical Girl Site

Watch

Caligula
Persona 5
Real Girl
Comic Girls
Pretty Derby

Drop

Galactic Heroes
Cutie Honey Universe
Souten no Ken
Tokyo Ghoul
Dances with the Dragons
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Did Piano no Mori get Netflix'd?
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LapisLazuli posted...

Enthusiasm

Magical Girl Ore

Mah man.

tazzyboyishere posted...

Did Piano no Mori get Netflix'd?

The news story came out LITERALLY one minute ago. Before that there was no announcement.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-04-08/.130123
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Watched episode 1 of Tada Never Falls in Love. Will mostly withhold judgment for now. The first episode was solid, and I like the characters. However depending on how good the show actually is at comedy I could see this either ending up fantastic or becoming stale very quickly.
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I think it's a shame that before it came out everyone was talking about it being done by the Nozaki team, since it's much closer to a romance than a comedy.
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the first episode had a bit too many cliches but still entertaining
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Megalo Box episode 1

that was a treat, loved the filter they used

Persona 5 episode 1

seems like a straight adaption of the game so far
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Tada was pretty heavy on comedy, and the humor was very similar to Nozaki, so the comparisons make sense...
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As I'm transitioning into watching currently airing stuff, quick reviews on stuff from last season I finished.

https://myanimelist.net/anime/season/2018/winter

Done in order going from left to ride, starting at the top. I will have a vital scene under some of these in spoiler tags.

Will have spoilers.

Violet Evergarden
This was by far the most anticipated show of the season and while I'm not sure it delivered a 10/10 masterpiece like I wanted, it was still a really good show. Out of all characters this season, Violet has the best character arc and I think it's only challenged by another female lead. While some what forced in places, I think the impact that each "mission" had on Violet and how her emotional state changed over time was great. This show did a great job at making you feel for a single character and having a torrent of different emotions depending on her circumstances. I do think though, that what stops this show from being like an all time great are the flashbacks. They don't really add anything we didn't know.

Vital Scene: When Violet bursts into tears after writing the 50 letters for the mom.

Citrus
In terms of building tension within a show, few have done it better this season than Citrus. Yuzu is a great lead and it's great that she's easy to root for. The show is obviously very soap operaesque with a ton of drama for seemingly no other reason but to be there. That said, it remains entertaining up to the final arc which I do feel was like kind of not needed at all. Harumin too is a great character, the more I think about it the more I like her. She's like the perfect comic relief. I do wish too the show was more about an actual romance versus just breaking Mai's shell. In any case, I'd say this one is a bit rough around the edges due to the fast pacing, but it makes up for it in entertainment.

Vital Scene: Yuzu visiting her father

Death March
There are now a lot of shows where an OP protagonist ends up in a different world. They are (from memory): Kirito (SAO), Shiro (Log Horizon), Sora/Shiro (NGNL), The main dudes in Overlord and Problem Children. There might be more. For the most part, all these shows have varying strengths and weaknesses (although NGNL is vastly superior to like everything else). Like, imo, the track record for this situation has not been good. So I was impressed when Death March... did not completely suck. I'd go far to say it was decent. I really liked a lot of the small rpg touches, although achievement spam got overused. I also really liked how the show never lost its focus of like... having no focus? I don't know. I think the biggest gripe was that nothing really happens in a show where I feel like something should be happening? It's not that it's dreadfully slow (like Log Horizon) but it's like just there. That said I don't think like any individual episode was actually bad, actually I liked a lot of them.

Skilled Teaser Takagi-san
I think this is the best show of the season. In terms of like taking a simple idea and executing it over and over again and having it right on the mark each time is incredible. Like also, this show has among the best interaction between two characters in anime, and it goes on for the entire season. Like each time I know what's coming, but it doesn't matter. This might not be the funniest or best looking title, but timing of everything really helps it shine.

Vital Scene: Smug Face

Yuru Camp
As far as laughs go, this is the best one for those this season. This show is hilarious. Nadeshiko is great. I do think though that the main issue is that as good as she is, I find it hard to really find the rest of the cast that exciting. They are kind of just there to be the rest of the cast.
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A Place Further Than the Universe
I've taken a bit of time thinking about this one because it's among the most common to be pegged for aots by the average person who watches more than like the 3 shounen shows that air. Like as far as the overall cast goes, this is probably among the best uses of them feeling authentic out of every show this season. Each character is done well and as a whole I really enjoyed them together, but individually it's hard for me to really be like "yeah I really liked Mari because of this" type stuff. I think this show is really funny when it wants to be and has some of the best dramatic moments of the season too. I do think though that these extremes can clash a bit too much at times.

Vital Scene: There are a lot of them here, but I think the big one is when they saw all of the missed emails.

After the Rain
After the Rain is a show that I really want to find something I really like in it, but can't. I don't think it was a that bad show, but despite the quality of each episode I found the overall experience very unsatisfying. Shows like this almost always rely on big emotional moments to tie in stuff. Instead there is this like extremely slow burn of what each character is going through, and while this might be more realistic... it's not as entertaining or fun. And despite all the time they spent with each other, I never really felt the two leads getting closer with each other in like a way I could go from an early episode to a later one and be like "I can tell something is different".

Kokkoku
I think this show has the best characterizaiton of any show. Like maybe not the best characters.. but I think that each one they put into the show has clear motive and acts in ways according to those motives just so well. Like, the dad character... he's fucking terrible, but because the show lets you know his reasoning behind things when he does something dumb it's like "wow of course he did" and they don't have a need to build it up like he's a major super villain, he just did it because that's what his personality would be like. If you wanted the other female lead I'd say had a great character arc, It's Juri. She didn't have as much of an emotional one has Violet, but her transformation from normal woman to shot caller was really great. This show I think is consistently great, but never really hits that excellent mark.

Vital Scene: When the dad summons the guardian. This is when i really started to notice how included every character, even seemingly worthless ones, were to the overall creation of the entire show.

Killing Bites
Is this show good? Probably not? But do I like it? Yeah? It's hard to say. I think a big factor is that I think like as far as physique wise, Hitomi is among the most attractive anime females I can remember. Her personality is far to simple to be like a great character, but she's sure fun to look at. Like I think the early episodes were a lot stronger and heading into the later ones I was like "man... wtf is happening now. I'm also pretty annoyed at the ending and really want S2 to happen despite me only mildly liking this? It's like not even the fight sequences are that great, but they are done with such brutality and that dumb narrator interjecting animal facts that it's actually great.

Dagashi Kashi 2
So I'm the only person who really liked the first season. I liked this one too... a lot of it is more of the same but each episode is shorter and therefore I do think the overall pace of this one is a lot easier to manage. The glasses girl is also fucking great. The biggest problem is that the best character is not in half the season. While Hotaru didn't need to hard carry this time around she is the biggest asset to the series.
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The Ryuo's Work is Never Done!
I thought this was a pretty great show. Like I thought it had a surprising amount of emotional depth which they managed to mix in with the shows otherwise comedic tone quite well. I think that the main failing is that the actual matches are not fun to watch at all. It's among the things that set a show like Chihayafuru so far above any other game where the players are like sitting down... the matches in that are just invigorating to watch.

Vital Scene: When Ai is crying a bit after a match and when she is asked why... she realizes that her being abnormally good at the game can caus others to feel sad. It's a very simple thing but something that was essential to her overall development.

Gakuen Babysitters
I don't have much to say about this one. I liked it... it was good. Cute even.

How to Raise a Mummy
I said the previous show about like taking care of babies was cute... it was. But this show... this is cute. It's about taking care of like mythological creatures and the way each of them act is just so fun to watch. If you want a really charming show that doesn't rely on cute girls... or babies? This is amazing.

Slow Start
I liked this quite a bit. I don't think it really fleshed out as well as I wanted it to at the end up I think as far as slice of life goes this has a pretty good cast and a great mix of comedy and just being cute moments. This show also has some of the best art/animation of the season... which is not something I expected to say.

Vital Scene: in an early episode Eiko takes note of Hana's timidness and makes a suggestion to help her out.

Mrchen Mdchen
So I think like in terms of a show being undoubtedly bad... this is it. I don't hate it as much as some. I really liked the whole concept of the main girl having a hard time around people and making friends and wanting to escape. Know what sucked? Like a lot of stuff, but especially the animation. My god, it was so bad. Like when it started getting really bad later one I literally saw one of the main characters and asked myself "who is that?" I do think though the Russia episode was great.
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so I haven't actually watched anything new besides tada-kun still... not sure if I will honestly we'll see what happens.

I tried watching gate again but I stalled again since I just am not into it so it has been dropped

again

then I spent a lot of time watching special episodes from shows I liked that I just never got around to to declutter my plan to watch list. it was fun.

watching violet evergarden now. I remember this getting some criticism for being slow paced or something but I'm really enjoying it. violet is a great character, the show feels heartfelt, and I like the direction it's headed.
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Oh man I had no idea the wholesome monster girl family anime was this season.
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Ayyyyye one more week until actual new Ore episodes.
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Another manga timestamp request. When does the Magi anime end in the manga?
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Mangaupdates actually has that info for pretty much all manga
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Woah, really? That's a lifesaver, thanks.
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KokoroAkechi posted...

Death March
There are now a lot of shows where an OP protagonist ends up in a different world. They are (from memory): Kirito (SAO), Shiro (Log Horizon), Sora/Shiro (NGNL), The main dudes in Overlord and Problem Children. There might be more. For the most part, all these shows have varying strengths and weaknesses (although NGNL is vastly superior to like everything else). Like, imo, the track record for this situation has not been good. So I was impressed when Death March... did not completely suck. I'd go far to say it was decent. I really liked a lot of the small rpg touches, although achievement spam got overused. I also really liked how the show never lost its focus of like... having no focus? I don't know. I think the biggest gripe was that nothing really happens in a show where I feel like something should be happening? It's not that it's dreadfully slow (like Log Horizon) but it's like just there. That said I don't think like any individual episode was actually bad, actually I liked a lot of them.

I liked that the show doesn't even try to pretend to be something else. The MC is the most OP piece of shit in the entire world and he's just relaxing doing whatever he wants with a harem while pretending to be a crappy merchant.

KokoroAkechi posted...

Killing Bites
Is this show good? Probably not? But do I like it? Yeah? It's hard to say. I think a big factor is that I think like as far as physique wise, Hitomi is among the most attractive anime females I can remember. Her personality is far to simple to be like a great character, but she's sure fun to look at. Like I think the early episodes were a lot stronger and heading into the later ones I was like "man... wtf is happening now. I'm also pretty annoyed at the ending and really want S2 to happen despite me only mildly liking this? It's like not even the fight sequences are that great, but they are done with such brutality and that dumb narrator interjecting animal facts that it's actually great.

uhhhh the one with the sharper fangs wins...?
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Holy shit the Magi anime had some crazy pacing, 200 chapters.
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The amount of pandering cheeseball fanservice in that thing is far too much for me to consider any of the characters attractive.

I generally can't find any characters in a fanservice anime attractive with rare exception.
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it was 50 episodes total

I'd say that's fairly good use of chapters
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GranzonEx posted...

it was 50 episodes total

I'd say that's fairly good use of chapters

Well yeah, just not what I'm used to seeing.
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Magi good stuff. Didn't realize the manga ended, so I'll check that out after ReLIFE
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4 chapters per episode feels pretty good for what shounen manga should aim for I feel like. 3's basically the minimum. I think Jojo and Ippo did 5-6, other than Stardust Crusaders.
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https://twitter.com/aitaikimochii/status/983332317702729730

According to Newtype's May 2018 magazine, the next three episodes for Boku No Hero Academia Season 3 titles will be the following:
Episode 40: Wild Wild Pussycats
Episode 41: Kouta-kun
Episode 42: My Hero

In case you were wondering about the pace, if you've read the manga you should know what moment My Hero refers to
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7 chapters. Though skimming through that seems to speak more for the pacing of the chapters than the pacing of the anime, I would have said those were at least 10 or 11.

In fact, I think season 3 may go further than I realized...really only 30 chapters between now and the place where I assumed it would end, wow.
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Yea things actually move quite quick in that arc, which honestly matches with the situation.
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Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Yea things actually move quite quick in that arc, which honestly matches with the situation.

I'm actually remembering how I felt the same back then. It just fucking goes. The OP is starting to make sense, I think that actually IS gonna be the halfway point of the season. Does that mean we get all the way through the exams?

Skimming through I'm guessing 45 chapters. We either end at the end of the exam or the villain meeting in the warehouse.
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TexasZea posted...

watching violet evergarden now. I remember this getting some criticism for being slow paced or something but I'm really enjoying it. violet is a great character, the show feels heartfelt, and I like the direction it's headed.

guess people don't like it because it supports pedophilia?
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Is Monday my dudes! Time for some Magical Girl Ore!

Time for one more week of waiting for Ore.
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TexasZea posted...

TexasZea posted...

watching violet evergarden now. I remember this getting some criticism for being slow paced or something but I'm really enjoying it. violet is a great character, the show feels heartfelt, and I like the direction it's headed.

guess people don't like it because it supports pedophilia?

...I'll be honest, that's a new one to me.
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GranzonEx posted...

it was 50 episodes total

I'd say that's fairly good use of chapters

Too fast if ask me.
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LapisLazuli posted...

TexasZea posted...

TexasZea posted...

watching violet evergarden now. I remember this getting some criticism for being slow paced or something but I'm really enjoying it. violet is a great character, the show feels heartfelt, and I like the direction it's headed.

guess people don't like it because it supports pedophilia?

...I'll be honest, that's a new one to me.

I'm just being an asshole, talking about the princess episode
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Most people who stuck with Violet Evergarden ended up liking it a lot.

Most of those who quit on the show, did so before reaching the payoff to Violet's humanisation.
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pjbasis posted...

Too fast if ask me.

How so? I mean, Jojo 1/2/4 all did 4 chapters per episode with great pacing, and SC did 3 chapters per episode and the pacing was too slow.

TexasZea posted...

I'm just being an asshole, talking about the princess episode

Ah, thought you were talking about Gilbert falling in love with Violet.
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How similar is Violet Evergarden to Chobits? Not sure if any people here read or saw that series, but thats the first thing it reminded me of

I read Chobits. There are no similarities.
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swordz9 posted...

How similar is Violet Evergarden to Chobits? Not sure if any people here read or saw that series, but thats the first thing it reminded me of

not at all really
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I'll admit that I dropped VE fast. Wouldn't have happened if it would have been streaming like normal, probably would have stayed on to the end. That second episode was just so offputting.

As for Magi, I've been told the anime actually cuts a bunch out?
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Quick look on MAL, this is a very unscientific method and the sample size is too small, but the 2nd half of the show's episodes got way higher ratings in their polls than the first half.

I believe the show's score history is a downward trend until again about the halfway mark where the score started climbing back up again.

Though expectations prior to Violet Evergarden's debut seemed to be AOTY contender, so it being just very good was underwhelming.
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Who is this purple haired girl with the red ribbon and fangs who is suddenly showing up all over my timelines? A Tohou? I can't escaaaaaaape.
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voltch posted...

Though expectations prior to Violet Evergarden's debut seemed to be AOTY contender, so it being just very good was underwhelming.

It had been hyped up for a looooooong time, but suddenly after it comes out with a mediocre start I see people coming out of the woodworks talking about how the books aren't very good, combined with the last minute Netflix controversy (not to mention the extremely poor messaging around it), and I was just....put off real hard. It's a victim of situational error, and just like every other delaycast release, there has been absolutely zero uptick in discussion or social media presence since the series released on Netflix last week on deaf ears.

As for MAL, the show was ranked #1 long before it even came out, so hard to use them as anything that meaningful. Basically any show that people are forced to pirate gets ranked pretty high for a while, as Apocryoha and Kakegurui sitting comfortably at #1 and #2 for weeks before and after they started airing goes to show.
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Crossing Time AKA surprise yuri of the season.

Speaking of which, anybody pick up any shorts? Probably gonna stick around with Crossing time and You Don't Know Gunma.
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