Winter 2014 Anime Season – First Impressions 2

As the winter season continues into it’s 2nd or 3rd week for some series, I thought I’d jot down some more of my first impressions on the season so far.

Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren – It’s interesting to see KyoAni make another season for Chuunibyou since I thought the first season was wrapped up rather nicely. They still managed to keep up the energy from the first season, despite the cast being another year older. While some of them were trying to pull off a second year debut (and put their chuuni past behind them), they revert back to their old selves and the silly antics resume once again. With Rikka’s issues being resolved last season and within the first episode of the season, it seems like this season will focus more on the romance side of things between Rikka and Yuuta. I’m not too sure what else they would do for plot since last season addressed Rikka’s personal issues (aside from them introducing another chuuni character). Overall, I think that this season has a more laid back feel and is closer to your traditional romantic comedy series based on my first impressions.

My 2013 Anime Year in Review

With 2013 coming to a close, I decided to reflect on my past year on anime. This is my first full year of following anime on a season to season basis where I would pick up several shows that were currently airing each season. In hindsight, I probably picked up far too many series in the Fall 2013 season by trying to keep up with about 22 series. I found it hard to keep track of everything as well as keep interest in the series which made the shows less enjoyable in my opinion. With that said, I’m looking forward to a great 2014 anime season and will continue working on my backlog throughout the year as well. With that said, I thought I would reflect on two anime series that I watched this past year that really impacted me and gave me a new perspective on things.

Fall 2013 Anime Season – Mid-Season Thoughts Part 1

Now that we’re more than half way through this Fall 2013 anime season, I thought I would share my now semi-informed opinion about the shows that I am currently watching. I’ll probably divide this up into 2-3 separate posts since I have around 20 series that I’m currently watching.

BlazBlue Alter Memory – I’ve lost most interest in this series at this point. I felt that we were introduced to a ton of characters but we never really got to know any of them or who they were. This left me in a confused state where I can’t even remember character names as well as where they came from again. In addition, I think that this show tries too hard to force comedic and fanservice moments at bad times. I also still have no idea what the story or direction is for this series.

Hanasaku Iroha – Post Thoughts

So I recently got around to watching Hanasaku Iroha: Home Sweet Home several months after I had seen the original series. While watching the movie, I was suddenly reminded about all the aspects that made me enjoy this series so much. The amount of character development shown throughout the series along with the characters’ relationships mixed with the relaxing slice of life aspect of the show made it a really enjoyable watch for me back in the day. When I heard there would be a movie for Hanasaku, I was initially thrilled but after hearing it would just be a side story I was kind of let down and lost a lot of my initial hype. However, I was pleasantly surprised for the actual content and story of the movie.

Fall 2013 – Week 5 Thoughts and Impressions

We’re now approaching the halfway mark for a lot of series for this season. This week also managed to revitalized my interest in several shows.

Valvrave S2 – This was a pretty crazy episode after last week’s revelation of Marie’s connection with the Valvraves. You can’t help but feel bad for her, having lived so long but having no recollection of her past because of the tests. She finally has a place where she belongs with friends now only to lose everything once again. I was really impressed by the direction in this episode, bringing back one of the endings from last season and playing it to a montage of Marie destroying her own memories. This scene was one of the most powerful ones I’ve seen and reminded me that while Valvrave is pretty ridiculous, they can execute some emotional and powerful moments. I also can’t help but feel that they left something behind… (poor Saki and Akira)

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…..”.