Fall 2014 Anime

Sounds like I should re-prioritize it the top.  Then again, life has been so random lately, I've only been able to keep up with Log Horizon on the anime front, and Constantine on the US TV streams.

I've heard good things about Yuuki Yuna, so I've been getting caught up on it.  So far I'm not all that impressed though.  I've watched six episodes, and while some of the girls' powers are cool I don't see a whole lot to get excited about.

Amagi Brilliant Park's last two episode have been a bit weak following the excellent run from episodes five to seven.  Otherwise my top picks are doing pretty well.  Akatsuki no Yona and Shingeki no Bahamut have been particularly impressive.  (Although finding out that the main heroine in Bahamut had her growth accelerated by demons and is actually only about five or six was a touch disturbing. )

Kiskaloo wrote:
That's not a criticism, by the way. The “twist” revealed in Episode 08 is right up there with the “twist” revealed in PMMM episode 09.

If you like PMMM, I think you’ll like this show.

Yeah, the PMMM influence is rather obvious but the show's very low key approach is different enough that it feels like so much more than just some copy cat.

WIXOSS also is trying to do a PM3, but there are fewer modalities in the CCG genre than in the MG genre.  It tends to be a little 'loopy' - it ends up trying to re-engage older plot threads by breaking its own rules.

I still have it 'queued' (Funimation has a CRAP profile page compared to CrunchyRoll), but it's a "rainy day anime."

In Search of Lost Futures is only eleven episodes long, and uses the last two very well.  It builds to a very good finish, one that is well worth watching.  The prerequisites for this climax are many and complex, requiring both that the audience understand the constraints the world and situation imposes, and that the audience become invested in the characters.

This is where it is only mediocre - they give some sense of slice of life, some mystery, some teen romantic drama, but there's no unifying theme aside from "here are the five main characters."

TL;DR: The first seven episodes are worth the slog.  The eighth is easily watchable, as it's where everything comes into focus.  Then, hang on to your hats and glasses for the last two!

The finale for Legend of Korra was pretty surprising! Props to Bryke and Nick for going the distance!

The ending for Selector was good, but I want more! DX

With the end of the year comes the end of the Fall Season. As noted earlier, I decided to only watch shows I really enjoyed, so everything gets an “A” grade.

When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace (Inō-Battle wa Nichijō-kei no Naka de)

Very different from what I expected, but in a very good way - it is my #1 pick of the season. I found the cast of characters excellent (Hatoko Kushikawa - ) and Studio Trigger’s production was top-notch. The story was a bit inscrutable - the light novel it is based on is 9 volumes so with only 11 episodes… Still, I think it was better that they only just touched on the Faerie War and the various factions fighting it as it would have probably just complicated the narrative.

Yama no Susume Second Climb

This has become one of my favorite anime franchises thanks to the sheer happiness each episode brings. I love these kids and I love sharing their adventures.


Yūki Yūna is a Hero (Yūki Yūna wa Yūsha de Aru)

If you were a fan of PMMM, I think you will be a fan of this. The influence from PMMM is strong and yet this show charts its own independent path and, IMO, is the better of the two, especially from a character and character development path. So you’re not going to be experiencing a retread. You could think of it as an “inspired by” story, rather than a reboot of PMMM.

That being said, it does suffer from “Coming Second-itish” having followed PMMM. What I really liked about PMMM was how it “deconstructed” the Magical Girl genre / trope and Yūki Yūna’s ability to play that hand was, to me, unsuccessful. Not because they did a poor job, but because PMMM had already done it (and did it better, IMO).

Celestial Method (Sora no Method)

This is an original story by Naoki Hisaya, who was the author of the Key visual novel Kanon. While he had nothing to do with either anime adaption (I am a massive fan of the 2006 KyoAni version), he also wrote the screenplay to the anime Sola, which I also found very interesting so I knew I was inclined to like this show and indeed at the end of the first episode I was committed.

Hisaya follows his usual tropes, so memory loss plays a major theme, as does the supernatural (or extraterrestrial in this case). Unlike many early Key projects, however, the girls in this show are not childlike moe-blobs (Noel excepted), but actually have distinct and defined personalities (as they did in Sola).

Early Key works (Kanon, Air and Clannad) are all about the “feelz-bombs" and Hisaya sprinkles them throughout here, as well, though with a much lighter and, frankly, more adept hand. That being said, this show affected me far less on an emotional level that Kanon or, especially, Air. Part of that might very well be “feelz fatigue” from Your Lie in April, but I think it was more because the story and characters are, overall, stronger than those portrayed in those earlier works.


Two shows are continuing into the new year, so this is my review of their first halves:

Your Lie in April (Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso)

I have never been this emotionally involved in a television show before, be it animated or live-action or country of origin or story genre. I find the dramatic writing and acting exceptional and the emotional trauma these kids undergo transfers 100% to me and I often find myself weeping from the intensity of their pain and the fierceness in which they move forward despite it.


SHIROBAKO

While I am sure it took some situations to the extreme, knowing people in the anime industry, and their stories this shows probably played closer to the truth then one might guess at first blush. With the first half showing us the completion of an anime production, I expect the second half to show us how a new anime series launches production.

A few of my top picks for the season have wrapped, but not all of them.

Amagi Brilliant Park: It's probably best to consider the second to last episode the finale, since it felt like a finale and the actual last episode felt more like one of those lame filler OVAs that gets released after a series finishes airing (I theorized that the studio did it like that because the final episode aired on Christmas Day, but apparently Kyoto Animation has done this sort of thing before).  At its best, this show was very entertaining, at its worst, uninspired.  Overall it was entertaining enough and different enough to be worth noting, but it's too bad it wasn't firing on all cylinders more consistently.

Coffin Princess Chaika: Avenging Battle: In my view this was a really solid follow up to the first season (which I felt kicked things into high gear towards the end).  The ending could have been more satisfying but for the most part I thought it was really good.  Some people think the pacing was too fast, but I think the rapid pacing was one of the sequel's biggest strengths.  It hit the ground running and didn't let up.

Sword Art Online S2: One interesting thing about Sword Art Online is that the writer seems to have recognized the flaws in some of his early writing and made an effort to at least tone them down a bit.  This second season had some of the series' best source material, but I also have to give credit to the staff who did the adaptation.  The improvement in source material led me to expect an improvement over the dark nadir of the first season's second arc, but the quality of this adaptation surprised me.  Of course it should probably be noted that some viewers who had no familiarity with the source material were bothered by the tone shifts between the season's three different story arcs.

Akatsuki no Yona and Shirobako are ongoing, and both are very good.  Akatsuki no Yona has been really strong lately aside from one episode I didn't particularly like.  Shirobako could have used better focus at times, but its still a good drama about working in the anime industry, even if it can get a bit trippy on occasion when the main character's imagination gets away on her.

Shingeki no Bahamut's finale is tomorrow.  I'm hoping it will be awesome.  This show seemed like a shoo-in for my top anime of the year, but the last few episodes haven't been as awesomely kick ass as some of the earlier episodes.  I'm really hoping the show can regain its crown with a strong finish.

Overall I still think this is the best anime season I've seen in quite a while.

Because one of the guys I watch anime with is also really into the show, I saw the tenth and eleventh episodes of Shingeki no Bahamut a second time at one of our screenings before watching the finale on my own.  On second viewing, it appears I may have been a bit too harsh on those episodes -they have some issues, but they actually did a lot of things right.  The finale was much the same way -there were a few things I had issues with, but it was pretty good for the most part.  Furthermore, the finale's end card hints that one of my biggest issues with the series may be resolved in (and may even provide a plot for) a sequel.

Overall, Bahamut was not perfect.  I wish the last few episodes had been better than they were.  But it's still my pick for anime of the year, for reasons I will get into in the appropriate thread.  Bring on that sequel!

Piero wrote:A few of my top picks for the season have wrapped, but not all of them.

Amagi Brilliant Park: At its best, this show was very entertaining, at its worst, uninspired.  Overall it was entertaining enough and different enough to be worth noting, but it's too bad it wasn't firing on all cylinders more consistently.

Crunchyroll just added the show and I couldn't sleep last night so I started watching it - and ended up burning through all 12 episodes (they didn't do #13, but looks like it wasn't necessary). Have to say that in general I agree with your opinion - it was generally quite entertaining and enjoyable, but overall still a "B" show: if a very strong "B".