Spring 2015 Anime Season

My Youth Romantic Comedy SNAFU Too...


...I don't know how a school teacher gets a manual Vantage, but I like her style.

While some may find Shizuka-sensei's Aston cool, I personally found it damaged the credibility of an otherwise brilliant episode that had been a long time coming.

Speaking of brilliant episodes, my enthusiasm for Sound! Euphonium may have waned a lot since my positive first impression, but I was quite impressed by this week's installment, which featured one of the most compelling romantic scenes I've seen in anime recently.

Piero wrote:While some may find Shizuka-sensei's Aston cool, I personally found it damaged the credibility of an otherwise brilliant episode that had been a long time coming.

Honestly, I think I've stopped trying to apply logic where Shizuka-sensei is concerned. Had it been one of the kids turned up in it or, frankly, anyone else from the series, it probably would have broken it for me but, this time... not so much.

Alfisti wrote:My Youth Romantic Comedy SNAFU Too...


...I don't know how a school teacher gets a manual Vantage, but I like her style.

I don't understand why she isn't driving a left hand drive one,  after all Aston martin is a British company and a British one would be easier to drive in Japan, of course it may simply be a case of foreign car must have its steering wheel on the other side !

Piero wrote:While some may find Shizuka-sensei's Aston cool, I personally found it damaged the credibility of an otherwise brilliant episode that had been a long time coming.

If it is a question of cost, Aston-Martins devalue like rocks thrown off a cliff. They lose something like half their value within a year, so within three years, what was a $90,000 car new can be had for less than $30,000 so that could explain how a teacher could afford one.

I admit I keep an eye out on the local dealer's used stock because of this. 

Awinnell wrote:I don't understand why she isn't driving a left hand drive one,  after all Aston martin is a British company and a British one would be easier to drive in Japan, of course it may simply be a case of foreign car must have its steering wheel on the other side !

Or if she is driving a grey-market import of a left-hand car, that could save even more money.

That said, I think your idea is the correct one - in the movie PAPRIKA, Doctor Atsuko Chiba's Aston-Martin DB7 is left-hand drive.

Piero wrote:Speaking of brilliant episodes, my enthusiasm for Sound! Euphonium may have waned a lot since my positive first impression, but I was quite impressed by this week's installment, which featured one of the most compelling romantic scenes I've seen in anime recently.

While I agree it’s not amazing, I do think it is solidly entertaining and definitely one of KyoAni’s better shows. While parallels can be drawn to K-On!, this is a fairly stronger show in terms of characters and story.
 
 
 
This has been a winner season for the most part in terms of what I am watching, the only real disappointments being Plastic Memories and The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato.

Plastic Memories - C+

A fantastic final episode, alas, cannot make up for the disappointment of the previous 12. A fair bit of that disappointment came from the show changing its tone early on from science fiction to romantic melodrama steeped in tropes and stereotypes. Then again, production company Aniplex pitched this show as a love story first and foremost so maybe it’s me setting false expectations. 

If I had been writing the show, I would have touched on what I felt were some very serious moral ambiguity around the Giftia. For nine years, the Giftia are parents, children, siblings or lovers. Their ability to replicate human emotions and empathy allows them to form very strong bonds with their owners – bonds which Terminal Services rips apart with what appears to be little care or concern outside of Terminal Service No. 1, who are treated poorly because they care and that costs money.

They finally decided to start touching on this in the last episode, alas, they didn’t have enough time to make a proper go at it. And that in some ways makes it all the more disappointing that they wasted all the time they did have on attempts at lame comedy and “otaku dearification” of Isla.

It is definitely my pick for "Best ED Theme", however:





Sound! Euphonium - A

Kyoto Animation has created a fair number of shows I have dearly enjoyed and they lived up to that reputation with this show, which I very much enjoyed. 

Superficially similar to the K-On! franchise, this show is the more powerful and…adult…one in my opinion. Where K-On! was cute girls being cute, Hibike! Euphonium was about cute girls giving it their all to improve sufficiently to qualify for inclusion in the Nationals. As I understand it, the advance Blu-ray sales may not be enough to warrant another series, which would be a shame as I would very much like to see Kitauji continue to advance.



Knight of Sidonia: The Ninth Planet Crusade - A

Both this series and the prequel played with the order of the early manga volumes they cover, but in a way I think the anime told the story a bit more clearly. And the anime allows a level of visual richness that the static page cannot, which really shines in the battle sequences.

Can we have a third season, please?



Hello!! Kin-iro Mosaic - A

Always brightened my day. Better than the original, which is saying something considering how much I loved the first one. At it’s most basic level, it’s another “cute girls being cute” show, but I found it to have a level of cheerfulness and earnestness that puts it a step above most such shows.



Teekyu Season 4 - B+

Another 36 minutes (over 12 episodes) of sheer insanity and lunacy - in a good way. It’s comedic shock and awe.

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan - B-

Overall, pretty disappointing. Really it could be considered the third Haruhi Suzumiya series as the entire cast was there. The actual "Disappearance of Yuki Nagato" arc consisting of Episodes 11, 12 and 13 were great because Yuki was like she was in the movie. The rest of the time, she was a moe-blob. I do like what they did with Ryoko's character - between her and the Arc, this saved the show a "C" grade.

I've been chewing through Ore Monogatari whilst working off-duty.

Oh. My. God. *clutches heart and pancreas* My diabeetus!

In all seriousness, I can relate a LOT to Takeo, being the big guy who got shot down a lot in high school, and was somewhat clueless, to boot. The more the story unfolds, the more I love watching the two of them interact.

I just don't know if I have enough insulin to handle it all.

MY love STORY!! - A-

This rom-com was so sugary it will rot your teeth and looking back I kind of feel that it would have done better at 13 episodes instead of 24 because it wandered or felt forced a fair bit of the time. But when I was watching it, I didn’t care because I was enjoying myself way too much. Which is why it gets an "A" and not a "B" even though it's not a show I plan to watch again or probably buy (I normally buy any "A" show I watch).

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma - A-


This ended up being one of my favorite shows of the season and one I looked forward to each week. The story should have been ridiculous, and at times did go a bit over the top, but overall they pulled it off and I really liked all the kids at Polar Star dorm as well as many of their adversaries.