Kill la Kill: Deeper than its skin, but not its clothes

Last Seen: Episode 10

My initial impression of the show was that it would play out as a action-centric hyper comedy show, with either half fighting for dominance. I was sort of right...Minus the third contender from way out of the park: The story and characters. With the entrance of the Soldier with a Mission a few episodes ago, and his summary exit that same day as is the shows style, the plot got a lot deeper, although not in any way that wasn't completely obvious well before it happened.
[Aside]Why does everyone assume that just because something leeks obvious from every pore, it's immediately bad? I've run into this way of thinking way too much lately. Just because you can accurately predict the outcome, doesn't mean the ride there won't be the greatest thing you've ever experienced, it just means it won't take you by surprise. For instance, Gurren Lagann had an obvious ending, the good guys were going to win. That was obvious. It was still one of the wildest rides to ever grace the industry. Obvious is not immediately bad; It is just a potential sign of bad craftsmanship.
[End Aside]
The significant part is how much deeper it got. I mean, we're not about to hit china over here with this show, taking a step back and looking at the big picture, we're still in the shallow end of the pool, but compared to what I thought was going to be this shows story and plot depth, (which was Zero), it's impressive. If only to me.

One part that continually impresses me is the shows own limiter, that it always lives up to. It loves introducing someone/something huge, and then wrapping it up before the end of the episode, if not before the end of half the episode, and yet it still makes it great fun to watch. I don't just mean cathartic mindless fun either, but some solid: 'oh, that's an awesome way to do that', moments.

Short Version: If you passed this show up because you thought it was just too over the top, if you thought it was just going to wallow in shallow 'strip them with sparkling special effects' shock value, stop, about-face, and start watching it again. The MAGNIFICENT FLASHY STRIPPING TRANSFORMATIONS don't ever stop or even slow down, but compared to where things have been before, they're keeping it under control. What you get at face value on day one, episode one, never goes away, the flash, the grandeur, it's all here for the long run. But! There is also depth here too. Usually when you see this simple magnitude of flash, it's because someones trying to compensate for something, and cover it up or distract you from it. Kill la Kill does not need its flash to distract you from anything, its flash is just spice to make what it has at heart taste better.

[New][October 2013] Log Horizon

A New Way to Live the Game

Last Seen: Episode 6

Summary: One day, 30,000 players suddenly find themselves trapped in another world. There, eight-year veteran gamer Shiroe also gets left behind. The trapped players are still alive, but they remain in combat with the monsters. The players don't understand what has happened to them, and they flee to Akiba, where they are thrown into chaos.
First Impression: Boldly striding where bandwagons meekly tiptoe. Solid story and characters, and a well shaped plot so far.

First Opinion: You remember the big hit a little while ago, Sword Art Online? You do? Well forget about it. This shows nothing like SAO. SAO ended up being a very action'y Shounen'y show, it lost a good deal of depth in the second season. Grant, I still enjoyed the hell out of it, but if it had just ended with the first season, and maybe an epilogue, it would have left a deeper impact. The core of the second season was sound, it just felt a little sloppy, too many plot holes.

Meanwhile, over here in Log Horizon, they like their flashy skills and spells, which is good, but the show is more drama and plot than it is action. The story is shaping beautifully, and the characters are all of sound quality and interest. The show has just spun its major plot element, and I'm looking forward to how this one spins out. If I had to summarize the the core difference, at the time of writing, between Log Horizon and SAO, it would be 'Human Interest' versus 'Drama and Action'. To be honest, I'm feeling like the word 'Drama' is a bit too general recently. I think I'll start cooking up something more specific for my needs.

If you were writing this one off as just a bandwagon behind Sword Art Online, (like I originally was), then consider yourself soundly slapped, and go start watching it.

Yuusha ni Narenakatta: Erotic. Erotic Everywhere.

Sorry no Screenshot today

Last seen: episode 3

Honestly I should have known this was coming, seen the signs. Most obviously, when the ending song and animation contains six plus women floating through the sky in string bikini's. So I just wanted to stop in real fast and give you all the heads-up warning that this show has an exponential increase in erotic content.

In other news, the core story of the show is still interesting, as are the characters. I suppose I've become a bit .. resistant? ..Jaded? to this kinda crap by now, I'm pretty sure I would have thrown down the gauntlet for way less than this before.

I don't know what to think of that.

If I can say anything positive though, it's that I am grade A impressed at how they managed to have a 100% Hentai moment, and be completely non-liable for it. Like, really. Even if you hate the show, watch episode three just to see them do it. It's ridiculous, the justifying world logic they use to glue it together during the moment is even unabashedly weak and loose as they give it in the moment. In the Moment is when the logic should be at its strongest. I was literally thinking "Lady, what you are saying doesn't even remotely explain whats happening on screen right now! Just who do you think you're fooling!?".
Long story short, this is the most bold-faced grab at our pants appeal I've encountered since I accidentally mistook a Hentai on watchanimeon.com for a mainstream anime.

[Aside]
Seriously why did they even have that thing on their website? They don't host hentai. To hell with Yosuga no Sora and everything it's about.
[End Aside]

Golden Time: Serves me right.

Oh no, Indeed

This. This, is what I get for being excited about having read the manga first. My hopes dashed upon the rocks before they even had a chance to flail their wings about, let alone soar. You need to understand, that I'm a cynical, pessimistic kinda guy. I take little signs of potential flaws very seriously. I look for excuses to shoot my hopes down to earth. Now, rather than reassuring me of the excellence that this anime will be, the manga has me doubting every little design choice of the animation studio. 'Are they doing this on purpose? Because they had to? Because the original wouldn't work? Will they make this the foundation of some terrible half-arsed quick end?', these questions are going  through my head non-stop. How the hell do other people that have read mangas before they got animated stand it? It's working its hardest to try and depress me. I was wondering just what they planned to do with the anime when the manga, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't even completed yet. Maybe just run a short season anime, that doesn't move through all of the existing content. Now, I'm not so sure.

I'm not saying that this anime is going to be bad. Hell no, quite the opposite I still hope many things of this one, and I'm willing to wager a solid bet that those of you who like Drama/Romance/Slice of Life will enjoy it. I'm just lamenting that my foreknowledge has poisoned my maximum potential to enjoy the anime.

[Spoiler Warning]In the manga, this little bit of scrunched up paper he's shoving into his back pocket was burned on the spot instead. This isn't something that needed to be done, it would have added to the drama. As soon as I noticed this too, I also noticed that the last two or three scenes before this also felt a bit off, and I suddenly remembered that it went differently. Those scenes, fine, nothing suspicious, maybe they just wanted to turn up the suspense a bit. Not burning these papers? 100% stinks of 'We plan to use this later'. When the animation studio plans to use something that wasn't in the original story, things start to unravel, just as badly as when things that existed are removed.
[Spoiler Warning End]

[Aside]

Yay me! *High fives self in the mirror*. For the first time, I feel like I've actually just slapped out my feelings about something into the blog, and not written a goddem essay.
Now, if only I could prove that this wasn't a fluke, and repeat it...

[Aside End]

[New][October 2013] Samurai Flamenco

Summary: Masayoshi Hazama, a man who has become a superhero “by himself” with no superhuman powers or any sort of high-tech conversions, and Hidenori Goto, a cop who constantly gets in trouble thanks to Hazama. This is the story of the birth of a true hero featuring these two young men with a touch of comedy and serious drama.

First Impression: Almost out for too much Comedy, and then right up high on the list for Drama.

First Opinion: Damn man. Talk about flipping the coin in just one episode. Half way through the episode I was almost ready to toss this one for the season, the played-straight comedy was getting so thick I couldn't stand it. I know a good lot of people who really enjoy that kind of comedy, but it's not my thing. Then, right at the end of the episode, it flips into a seriously solid dramatic moment.

My best advice: Take to heart that the opening ends as a dream, don't let it set the tone of your expectations, and ride the first episode to the end. The beginning is a whole lot of character and tone set up. They even use In Medias Res to help define a character. That's a fair risk to do that for something like an episodic anime series, although the risk is lessened by containing it within a single episode. As used in this case, it was a fairly complicated way to play out character introductions, an unnecessary but flavorful bit of spice.

[New][October 2013] Machine-Doll wa Kizutsukanai

Summary: During the early 20th century, along with technological advancements, scientists were able to develop sophisticated magic. The combination of science and sorcery was Machinart, circuits made from spells that were put into objects to bring them to life and even gain a personality. It was developed as a military weapon and has now spread throughout the world. Akabane Raishin is now attending the Royal Academy to become the best in the world.

First Impression: Action Drama. Clean cut. Maybe there will be some romance in it as a spice, but the core is obviously going to be Action, and Drama.

First Opinion: Did I mention I hate some websites summaries? I hate some websites summaries. They are so bland and worthless, and sometimes they don't even make sense. These summaries I give you people? I make them from bits and pieces of several places summaries, after I watch the first episode, to make sure it's at least helpful. The first summary I read of this anime was so garbage, it made the anime seem worse than garbage. I feel really bad for thinking that of it.

Back on topic, there's nothing here spectacularly above the diagonal. I thought from the first impression I got about this anime (seriously to hell with some summaries out there), was that it was going to be another contrived romance between a 'synthetic human' and normal human. I've had it up to the roots of my hair with that plot type. Not so much for having seen a lot of them, but because there isn't a lot you can do with it. The story always resorts to either contriving up a way to make the synthetic a little less synthetic, or they dance down some merry rainbow-happy-road of borderline delusional denial and evasion of serious discussion. I don't understand, personally, the idea of intentionally choosing a controversial thing, and then being paranoid about it. You bloody chose to have the controversy.
Instead, this show not only throws that plot type right out the window, it spits on it in mid-air, with the two main characters literally stopping to stand still and talk it away. I found that in good taste, but hey, maybe someone out there was looking for the contrived synthetic romance plot again.

My present decision for this one is to keep it and file it into action, but I don't really have high hopes for it. The blunt rejection of a plot type was novel, but not remarkable these days, it's being done more frequently it seems. Other than that, I don't see much especially unique, although several things are a tiny bit original.

[New][October 2013] Tokyo Ravens

Summary: Tsuchimikado Harutora was born into a prestigious Onmyoji family, but he can't see Spirit Energy. Therefore, he's been enjoying a peaceful daily life with his friends at an Onmyo branch school. One day, his childhood friend Tsuchimikado Natsume, heir to the head family, suddenly appears.

First Impression: Flashy high budget animation action. Sci-Fi rules oriented Fantasy.

First Opinion: There's a right way, and a wrong way to dump a truckload of information on an audience, and mindlessly reciting a hundred very detailed and lengthy names is not a right way to do it. Very fast into the episode they quickly dump out a bunch of names that are borderline Science Fiction complicated. For me, that's a plus because it means someone somewhere put a lot of thought into this world. Where there's more detail and more thought, there will be more quality, if for no other reason than the time required to create the excess details. For others though, this first episode better not have expected everyone to have picked up or retained anything they just said, because that's just silly.

Things start slow and somewhat solidly grounded within the usual Anime settings, high school, group of friends, vague hints of the protagonist having some past events and issues. When the action kicks off into high speed at the tail end of the episode though, things go bat-shit bonkers. The animation kicks in some 3D computer animations, things get very flashy, very detailed, and most of all: Very Crazy. The sudden introduction of the 3D computer animation made me think of Ghost in the Shell, the only memorable previous instance I have of something similar. The sudden tone shift in animation may throw a few people off, but I've always found to be at the minimum interesting, if not at least hilarious when it fails hard.

This show looks like it's going to be trying really hard to fit into a slot somewhere around the area of Action. They slap the Romance elements onto the back-burner so hard I think they'll have to walk backwards for a while to see where they're going.

[New][October 2013] Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta

Summary: In a town where humans and demons co-exist, it takes more than a normal police force to maintain the peace. Enter the Hiizumi Life Counseling Office, a fantastic foursome of unique teenagers, each gifted with an amazing super power.

First Impression: I'm lost, but this is an action oriented Drama. Maybe some Slice of Life too.

First Opinion: So...I'm honestly going to be judging this by the previous one...because I'd be lying to myself if I tried to do anything else. On that note: This is obviously in a different animation studios hands, although I lack the resources or interest to find out the specifics. Even for someone like me, who usually doesn't pay attention to graphics of any kind, having a previous point of reference to compare it to shows that this new... season? Instance? Retelling? Remake? Whatever the heck this is, it's art and animation are a lot more...hyper. It's much more action oriented to be sure, very flashy and bombastic. The characters are also... I'm going to phrase it as 'less mellow'. They come off as 100% more outgoing than the previous rendering. Ao especially, is just way less...broody than I remember her being. Maybe I'm just remembering wrong.

I'm going to go out on a limb, and try to take this instance of Yozakura Quartet on its own, try to forget the previous one. Sure, we're in the same place, same setting, same original cast, and probably even the same emotional and drama plots, but everything feels way different right out of the gate, so bringing in some predispositions from former relations feels like adding deadweight onto the show it doesn't deserve just yet. I'm going to at least try. No promises.

[New][October 2013] Gingitsune

Summary: Gintaro is a fox spirit that has been protecting the small Inari temple since the Edo era. Makoto's family possesses the power to see the gods' agent, but the ability is limited to one living relative at a time. With the help of fox spirit's power, Makoto and Gintaro help the people of their community, in spite of their many differences.

First Impression: Very light hearted. Slice of Life'ish.

First Opinion: Gintaro is...Not standard of what you'd expect anything Fox themed to be like. Maybe they're going to tie that to him being from the Edo era, but...well it was hilarious for me. They start the show out in a position that could have played on sorrow and tragedy easily but...quickly brushed over it and skipped ahead. That felt rather awkward, but really I have to admit that trying to get the audience to care about the sorrows of a character that literally has only been on screen for 5 seconds is a bit much, so I'm going to say 'good move'. I'm not in a position to say much about this one, as I personally love Foxes, but here's my two-bits: This looks like a very slow, light-weight drama show. If you're not the kind to let yourself be interested in stories that aren't action packed or deeper than the ocean, you may want to just pass over this one. If Slice of Life is your kind of show though, pick it up.

[New][October 2013] Yuusha ni Narenakatta

 Summary: The story revolves around Raul, a boy who did not become a Hero, since the demon lord was already defeated just before his Hero exams. His dreams dashed, Raul spends his days working at a magic shop in the capital.

First Impression: Comedy and Slice of Life appear to be the core right now, but there's likely going to be some romance in the future.

First Opinion: Wasn't there just one like this last season? I hadn't seen that one yet, so I can't say anything on that front, but what I do know is there is a hell of a lot of Demon-Hero anime is coming out lately. For now, this is pretty interesting. They almost completely scrap anything to do with the generic fantasy setting thing with Demon Lord and Hero, and quickly reset the tone down to everyday life. In fact, the Demon/Hero thing so far just seems to be a free character background plot dump, that saves them having to animate and explain the characters backgrounds in detail. Personally, I think this is a good idea, as it will provide an entry point of interest for a lot of people, but still gives it plenty of room to be original with its material, unlike say...Hagure Yuusha.
For now, this is on my list, but with so many other nice things, this will likely be one I don't keep up with week to week.

[New][October 2013] Golden Time

This statement is about to become humor in a few seconds

Summary: Tada Banri, a newly admitted student at a private law school in Tokyo, found himself completely lost after the opening ceremony, trying to find his way to the freshman orientation. At that moment, he ran into another lost freshman from the same school, Yanagisawa Mitsuo, and they hit it off at once. Somehow arriving at their intended goal just on time, there appeared in front of the two a beautiful girl holding a bouquet of roses.

First Impression: Drama Romance roller coaster.

First Opinion: H'omigosh. Omigosh. I have an informed opinion for the first time...ever! I know this one, I've been reading its manga as its been slowly translated into English. So here's my best advice, and informed opinion:
If you like the Slice of Life and/or romance anime, you will very easily find this one very refreshing and original, but I must warn you: Take nothing at face value. Things start off simultaneously cut-n-paste, and out of place original in the first episode. If you find anything you like, put this one on your list because it's gonna roller coaster you in multiple directions, emotionally.

[Aside]
I just wanted to take a moment to say that the animation studio doing this so far has done amazing work, turning one manga chapter into one anime episode. That has a long running record of not going well. Especially in mangas like this one, that have a lot of thinking instead of talking and doing, it's generally considered taboo to put thinking into TV, shows, Movies, Et C.
[End Aside]

[New][October 2013] Nagi no Asukara

Summary: Hikari Sakishima and Manaka Mukaido are Sea Dwellers and childhood friends. When their school in the sea is closed they are forced to attend a land school.

First Impression: Romance and Drama are going to be central here. A little bit of Slice-of-Life with a light spice of fantasy.

First Opinion: This one's going to be much more mellow than the other releases, a good way to wind down before or after them. It seems the central tone will be romance, but as with any high school setting for a Japanese anime, it's gonna be slice-of-life too, especially with the light fantasy setting. I'm looking forward to it, they've already painted a very colorful world so far, with some at least standard characters. Haven't got enough to fully judge the quality of the characters, the heart and life of a show like this one.