Fall 2013 Anime Season – Recommendations

So now that we’re about a quarter of the way into the anime season, I thought I’d just share my opinion on series that I highly recommend to watch. If you’ve been following my posts in the past, then you should have a general idea of which series I found to be on top for the season.

Unbreakable Machine-Doll – I feel that Unbreakable Machine Doll is one of those series that combines many different aspects or types of anime into one series but manages to execute it very well. There are comedic moments, drama, battles, action, romance, and even some dark elements to it as well. It seems that battling with familiars is a common theme with the Fall 2013 season but I just feel that Unbreakable Machine-Doll offers the most captivating premise compared to the others supported by well designed characters (a MC who isn’t clueless and can take action)

Bakuman Series – Post Thoughts

I recently completed watching the final episodes of Bakuman 3 after picking up the series from the beginning approximately a month ago. I really did not expect to complete a 75 episode series within such a short amount of time, especially while keeping up with school and the ongoing Fall 2013 season. I must say that I did not expect to enjoy this series as much as I did since I had brushed it off so many times in the past before actually deciding to watch it. Be warned that this post contains SPOILERS so those who don’t want to be spoiled, you have been warned!

Fall 2013 – Week 4 Thoughts and Impressions

I can’t think of anything this week that really stood out to me but I’ll still comment on a few series this week.

 Golden Time – Things are starting to heat up for this series with a little more of Banri’s past being revealed. While I do enjoy this series overall, I can’t help but feel that Banri’s confession to Kouko came rather abruptly. While they did spend some time together, it just overall felt more like friendship between them despite the hints being dropped about Banri’s feelings. I just hope that they make use of this early confession to develop the characters more since this is a two cour show. I couldn’t see them getting together this early (especially with Kouko’s obsession with Mitsuo) but this is likely a catalyst for them to grow and mature so they can decide what they really want. Hopefully the confession to a vulnerable Kouko doesn’t strain their relationship dynamics since it was nice watching them interact so casually.

Anime Recommendation (5) – Seitokai no Ichizon

For this anime recommendation, I will be talking about the Seitokai no Ichizon series (Student Council’s Discretion). I was reminded of this series recently with the subbed OVA being released (thanks to UTW) and it reminded me how much I loved it. Seitokai no Ichizon is primarily a comedic show with tons of parodies/references to other anime throughout the series. My general overview or brief explanation of this series is that it revolves around Sugisaki Ken, a playboy and his interactions with the rest of the student council members who are all females. Ken, like most protagonists, has a dream which is to make the student council his own personal harem. While it may sound rather shallow of him, his reasoning behind the harem is that it will be the way to bring the people he cares about the most happiness possible.

Fall 2013 – Week 3 Thoughts and Impressions

With week 3 of the Fall season now pretty much coming to a close, I have to say that most series are starting to shape up and take form of what we can continue to expect from them. I’m finding myself enjoying series that I previously had written off and becoming more engaged in their worlds.

Samurai Flamenco – While this is only on its second episode, I can already tell it will probably be one of my favourites. Masayoshi’s character is just really likeable to me with how optimistic and innocent he is. It’s also a nice contrast from Hidenori’s more pessimistic and realistic attitude. I really enjoyed how Masayoshi was trying to prevent miniscule crimes that seemed to be just unnecessary (throwing garbage out in the morning, don’t steal umbrellas) but they ended up causing real problems for some people (himself). While the series is still starting off, I really enjoy the focus on small crimes or rule breaking as it gives the whole series a more light hearted feeling. However, I think it’ll probably escalate further and dealing with more serious and big crimes (gangs, drugs, etc.). In the end though, I just hope they keep it to somewhat realistic situations (no super powers or crazy technology) since I got the “ordinary” feel from the series based on the initial description, “This is a story of love and justice presented by the creators who failed to be adults for those “grown-ups” who don’t want to be adults either…..”.

Anime Recommendation (4) – Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (AnoHana)

It’s been a while since I’ve posted one of these but here we go! For this post, I am recommending the series AnoHana, or “We Still Don’t Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day” which is a pretty dramatic, slice of life series with some supernatural elements to it. I’m recommending this series since this is one of the first series I watched when I got back into anime a year ago (After PapaKiki and Angel Beats). I picked this up after seeing it being recommended with Angel Beats! which absolutely left a major impression on me.

Fall 2013 – Week 2 Thoughts and Impressions

I finally managed to find the time to catch up on the majority of my anime this week. With the second week now pretty much over, I managed to start every fall series I had planned on watching originally. Overall, I found that most of the shows that started in the second week were more entertaining to me compared to the ones that started airing last week. From the series that aired last week, I found most of them to be more enjoyable after getting more into the stories and characters in the second episodes.

Fall 2013 – Week 1 Thoughts and Impressions

Alright so I’ve been pretty busy with classes this past week, watching League of Legends World Finals, and climbing the ladder in League as well. I’ll continue posting recommendations and other content once I clear up my assignments in about two weeks time. Anyways, I did manage to watch most of the shows I wanted to this week.

For the most part it’s far too early for me to have a solid impression or opinion on the shows since I didn’t really find anything managing to impress me on the first episode. I usually don’t start developing attachment to characters and shows until about half way through the season (unless its a sequel). The opening and endings are alright for the shows but I don’t find them to be as catchy as last seasons’.

Kill La Kill – This was quite hyped up by the community since many people loved the staffs’ previous work and it was Trigger’s first full anime series. My first thought on this series was that it is pretty freaking crazy. I’m not really a big fan of the art style but I guess it fits for the overall theme and style of the show. It also reminds me quite a bit of Medaka Box (which was one of my favourite series) with Mako resembling Shiranui. It also has a ton of shounen action and tropes and I guess is a kind of parody of the genre. Overall, I like this series but I don’t think it’s as mind blowing as many are claiming it to be.

Summer 2013 Anime Season Wrap Up (Part 3)

Now that the Summer anime season as officially ended, I’ve been able to check off the rest of my summer series from my list.Overall, I found this season to be pretty enjoyable with most of the shows I watched being quite entertaining and well executed. I decided to leave Gatchaman Crowds, Chronicles of the Going Home Club, and Hyperdimension Neptunia out of my write up because I didn’t have many comments on the show since I didn’t follow the show that closely or didn’t understand their references and connections to the source (Neptunia). With that said, I thought that the music from the summer season was one of the best I’ve heard in a while. I added a lot of new songs to my playlist based on the OP and EDs from this season (Gatchaman, Fate Illya, Genshiken, Gin no Saji to name a few). Anyways here are my last thoughts about the summer anime season!

Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai: Megami-hen (World God Only Knows: Goddesses)

I was a bit confused how they would manage to fit the entire arc into only 12 episodes when they didn’t even encounter several key characters in the previous seasons. I was quite surprised at how well it turned out even though they apparently cut out quite a bit from the source material. Rather than being more “repetitive” like the previous seasons with capture arc after capture arc, Goddesses revisits Keima’s past conquers and manages to develop all of their characters even deeper. It not only developed the girls’ characters but Keima also underwent major development. No longer treating life like a game, he realizes that his actions have repercussions and starts to look at life differently. This was probably one of my favourites for the season.