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.

Fall 2013 – Week 7 Thoughts and Impressions

We’re now into week 7 of the Fall 2013 season! The end is approaching for many shows but at the same time we a lot of two-cour shows as well that will carry on into the winter season. I’ll do a series of post within the next few days to share my mid-season impressions on all the shows that I’m currently watching since I don’t really have enough to write about them on a weekly basis. Anyways, this week I’ll be sharing my thoughts on Monogatari Series: Second Season episode 20, Samurai Flamenco episode 6, Kill la Kill episode 7, and White Album episode 7.

Monogatari Series: Second Season – Okay while this show technically is a summer 2013 series, it was two-cour and continued into the fall season. With that said, I didn’t really discuss about it in the past because I didn’t feel emotionally involved or anything based on the first few arcs (weren’t my favourite characters). However, this past episode just blew me away completely. Hachikuji’s interactions with Araragi were always my favourite part of the show, just the way they go back and forth with witty comments, or their affection for each other. I was expecting this to be a more Shinobu focused arc since her name was in the title so I was not expecting this outcome until mid way through the episode. Hachikuji and Araragi’s final conversation was very heart felt and showed how much they meant to each other. You could hear Hachikuji’s voice breaking more and more as Araragi’s voice showed more desperation as the conversation progressed.

You can watch Monogatari Series: Second Season on Daisuki (May not be available in all regions)

Fall 2013 – Week 6 Thoughts and Impressions

Alright so this post is a day late since I’ve been busy with assignments for school as well as the end of Season 3 for LoL (last minute climb). Anyways, I finally had the time to catch up on the majority of my series so I can share my thoughts for week 6. The shows I chose to write on this week were Kill La Kill episode 6, Golden Time episode 6, Valvrave S2 episode 5, and Samurai Flamenco episode 5.

Kill La Kill – This episode showed a lot of character development for both Ryuuko and Sanageyama. Both of them at the start of this episode were pretty cocky in their strength (Ryuuko relying fully on Kamui while Sanageyama relied fully on his eyes). However, once Sanageyama lost the match, he worked hard to improve on his weaknesses to become stronger while Ryuuko stayed complacent based another victory for her. Ryuuko finally realizes that she isn’t some god (at the moment anyways) and can actually be defeated even with her Kamui. I’m interested to see how the pacing for this series will work out now with it being a 2-cour show. They showed the power gap between her at the moment and the elites along with introducing outside parties who will get involved in the future. Anyways, I look forward to next week’s episode since the last two really revitalized my interest in Kill La Kill.

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…..”.

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.