[New][Ended] WELCOME TO THE BULK POST

OKAY SO. I may have...fallen behind on anime for a while. So we have here another bulk post to catch up on some things that have been and gone that I either didn't get to post at all, or forgot to make a post for.

-[April 2017]- Natsume Yuujin-chou Six

Summary: A beautiful yet fleeting story about people and spirits. Natsume Takeshi has been able to see Yokai ever since he was young and inherited his grandmother Reiko’s Book of Friends. He spends his days with his self-proclaimed bodyguard Nyanko-sensei, and freeing the Yokai that were bound to the book. Natsume continues to find ways to protect the precious days where he tries to find which path to follow through his connections with spirits and those involved with them.

My Opinion: This is more of what we already love. Need I say more? What should one say about the sixth sequel in a series besides that? I mean, some show's shake things up, or at least try to, but this isn't really that kind of show. If nothing ever changed, (besides character growth, you can't do without character growth, and we have that here), we wouldn't really have anything to complain about. Or at least, I wouldn't be complaining. I could happily watch an episode of this show every day of every week for the rest of my life and never get tired. It's just not realistic to expect the author to be able to come up with that much original content, so we know that eventually, it must end, but for now...
Everyone, gather round, and sit down, it's time for another season of Natsume and the Book of Friends.
For this show has but one flaw:

THERE ISN'T NEARLY ENOUGH OF IT--

World End: What do you Do at the End of the World? Are you busy? Will you Save Us?

My Opinion: This gets a double big thumbs up as a
Greatshow.
With a strong Recommendation on top. All of the characters in this show end up being splendidly fleshed out, and the story is just...wonderful. I can't say much beyond that without spoiling stuff, I feel like. I wish I had gotten to write the end review back when I watched the last episode, so I could have filled it with more passion. As it is, I've just got this pleasant feeling of Euphoria from the spot in my brain it occupies. If I had to sum up this show, I would say 'Not Cheap'. Fair warning, this show doesn't get the happiest ending, but it does have a great ending.

The story has a passing level of depth to its plot, which is good because the driving force of the show is definitely its characters more than its over-arcing story. It provides some background driving force behind the scenes, and that's all it needs to do. Give this show a shot. I was a bit worried about the show to begin with because they were going for the cheap lewd jokes, but it was ultimately just me being trigger happy and easily annoyed around those elements in shows. It never becomes a problem. So, go pick this show up and give it a shot, I say it's worth your time!
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KADO: The Right Answer
My Opinion: For as high as they raised the stakes, this show ended quite well. Honestly, once you take your story to the Universal Dimensional Forces level and beyond, you're just...what are you suppose to do with that?

I feel like this show could have been god-tier quality with a longer run time and more time to do things slowly, but as it is, it's great for what it has. It's the first time I've seen characters animated in 3D-CGi that look good. Like, really good. I've never really believed that I'd see 3D-CGI be good for anything but monsters that are meant to look weird and out of place with the rest of the show. This show proudly proved me wrong, the characters look just fine, amazing in fact. The question is, does doing it this way actually save the industry money and time? I couldn't even begin to guess, let alone make a statement. Hopefully it does, and it will raise the bar of quality.

As far as story goes, it's good. Not the most amazing thing ever, but it's very pleasant and it keeps you engaged. The characters....feel strong. Looking back on it, the show really felt...rushed. At the time, nothing seemed amiss, and honestly nothing was. However, with hindsight, I feel like I can say that if they had more time to flesh the characters and story out in a more methodical manner, things could have been even better. No one can deny that the climax just sort of....explodes onto the scene. For a while there, I thought the show would devolve into a Shounen-style battle for the finale. It didn't, I'm happy to say. I guess they just wanted to show off some of their more flashy special effects in the CGI.
The show is a slow, almost intellectual affair. More something to stimulate you thinking about things than pure entertainment itself. I'm not sure how to describe it much further than that. Give it a shot, see if it's your thing. If nothing else, make sure you watch a bunch of clips of the 3D-CGI, I think it's amazing how well they did with it.
--

Okay, that will have to do for now. Blogger is whining that I'm about to go over the Label/Tags character limit, so more at a later date.

Handling Sequels

So!
Today's post shall be a bit unusual. More and more, I'm conflicted about how I handle posting here on Evil Cat's blog. Specifically, the lack of posting. On the one hand, I have a job now, and that has made what time I do get to myself all the more valuable, it's easier to pick out what games I'm really enjoying, rather than just killing time on. On the other hand, I also am theoretically running a youtube channel (if one video a week counts as "running"). Finally, I have the posts I make here about anime that particularly catch my interest from new releases/ongoing shows.

A while back, when Evil Cat stopped in for a bit, I asked him briefly if he cared if I put up posts on sequel seasons that hadn't been featured here for their first seasons. He gave the okay, but I never really used the new allowance. Mostly, because there wasn't really a good way to make a post that didn't sound like, "Hey! Here's a show I've been watching for a long while, you should love it because I do!"
Yeah, no.

So instead, I've opted to come up with a one-size-fits-all blanket solution. When new seasons roll in, I'll make a single post pointing out the shows that are having second or greater count seasons. As always though, I'll only be pointing out ones that have caught my interest, are remarkable in some way, or have had a previous season posted about on the blog. My hope is that this will give me a quick and simple method to generate additional, but still useful, content on the blog. For instance, I don't think anyone needs a week by week update that One Piece is still running.
*quietly giggles to self*
*Ahem*
Anyway, on with the show:

Bungo Stray Dogs 2: The second season takes an interesting spin, by turning back the clock. Dazai's history was something of an in-joke bet amongst the detective agency he worked at. Even though we as the audience are given to know the what of it, the details were never explained. The shows second season begins where Dazai's time with his previous employer ends, and it is every bit as gloriously gloomy and full of humanity as the first season was. The one thing Bungo Stray Dogs constantly had going for it, and continues to have in my opinion, is a perfect hairline balance between comedy and tragedy/drama. I recommend this series, it's a wonderful balance of story and action, characters and powers. The presentation is also noteworthy, I like the artistic style.

Natsume Yuujinchou 5/go(u): The Fifth season of Natsume Yuujinchou, of course. A couple places phrased it as 'gou', more often as 'go', honestly it doesn't matter, it's the fifth season anyway so 5 is fine. Given that the previous tags on the blog used the romanji, I'll stick with it. When I saw this pop up on crunchyroll, I was immediately elated. Just absolutely out of my mind happy. I love this show so much. But then...I was suspicious. It had been so long...could it really meet expectations? I had actually forgotten about the show for a long while...after so much time had passed, could it really start back up where it left off? Continue to make me love all of its characters?
Clearly it wouldn't be on this list if this wasn't the case. Everything is as it should be, and one episode had me falling in love all over again. This show is golden. Go watch everything Natsume Yuujinchou has to offer you if you haven't already.

Natsume Yuujinchou (Ended): Nice Touch

I once thought Natsume Yuujinchou is just another "Mushishi light", I was wrong. Natsume Yuujinchou is much more than just an ordinary ghosts and spirits story. Compare to Mushishi and Mokke, Natsume Yuujinchou is focused much more on creating atmosphere for emtional moments. Ghosts and spirits are just the medium.

As most series like this doesn't really have an ending with resolution, Natsume Yuujinchou is no exception. The ending, is merely a big gathering. I saw that coming long time ago. Howerver, there is some hooks left in the last episode that indicate there might be a season two. I'd be really glad if they do make another season. Series as heart touching as this nowadays are pretty rare. That's why I'm going to award Natsume Yuujinchou with the

Most Heart Touching Anime of 2008

I've once thought Clannad would be the one earning this award. However, the tv series just didn't deliver enough to deserve this award.


Final scoreboard (out of 5):

Drama: 5 (Very dramatic)

Comedy: 4 (Not its focus, but pretty good for what it had)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 4.5 (Not quite fond of it in the beginning, but I slowly learned to like it)

Sound/Music: 4.5 (Perfect music for the theme)

Character: 4.75 (Very well developed)

Plot: 5 (Good collection of short stories)

Ending: 4.5 (Good enough for a series like this)

Re-watch value: 4 (Some emotional moments are worth to be relived)

Overall (not average): 4.8 ~ Heart Touching

Recommendation: If you like traditional Japanese ghost stories, this one is for you. If you like heart touching stories, this one is also for you. If you like both, this should be the No. 1 series on your "to watch" list. If you like neither, well, give it a shot anyway, it might change you.

Natsume Yuujinchou: A Series of Heart Touch Stories

Currently finished: Episode 8

It started off just like Mokke with different setting and character. As it progresses, I realized that it has a much heavier tone than Mokke or even Mushishi. Knowledgewise, I'd say it can still be tagged as "Mushishi light". But this anime is just filled with rich emotions. So far the whole series have been a collection of heart touching stories, not necessarily tragic, but heart touching.

New Rating (out of 5): 4.5 (Net gain: +1.0) ~ Heart Touching

Natsume Yuujinchou: Another Mushishi Light?

Currently finished: Episode 2

This is another anime has something to do with traditional Japanese ghost and spirit stories. The structure so far is very similar to Mokke and Mushishi, where every episode, a new "entity" is introduced, and the significance of this entity is explained through some events occurred during the episode.

So far, the "bitter sweet comedy" has been the general approach. In contrast to Mokke and Mushishi, Natsume Yuujinchou seems to be trying to make a much bigger emotional stir.

July 2008 New Anime: Natsume Yuujinchou (夏目友人帳)

Info/Download: http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1248.html

Genres: Supernatural

I've watched: 1 episode

Art style: Soft edge

Summary: Natsume is a boy that can see ghosts and spirits. His recently discovered that his recently deceased grandmother can see them too. Among the belonging of his grandmother, there is a book that contains the name of ghosts and spirits that had fought her and lost. Those spirits are bound to the book to server whoever owns the book.

Rating (of 5) - first impression: 3.5 ~ It's a bit strange, maybe just need to get used to it

Personal comments: None at the moment