| Trying to inject some more life into this club, I guess. Thread purpose is to just talk/rant/discuss about whatever you've been watching recently, be it seasonals, classics you've finally gotten around to, or just whatever weird shows you've stumbled upon. |
| Might as well also talk about what I've finished watching in the past month. The SoulTaker - Words cannot describe this anime. It's like some sort of devilman ripoff created by essentially "proto" Shaft, with alot of staff that later went on to create and influence basically all of Shaft's works. Aside from that, it's a creative, aesthetic as fuck anime with some of the best color design I've ever seen, and filled with interesting visual effects and experimental cinematography. It also has a nonsensical plot about a dude who can turn into Devilman ripoff after getting stabbed by his mother, and fighting off multiple secret organizations trying to murder clones of his sister. All in all, I'd hesistate to call it good? The story is incredibly dumb and the action scenes are hard to follow due to all the visual experimentation, but it certainly feels very unique and somewhat influential. (Apparently this was the first anime to ever be made in HD?) Overall 6/10, the definition of style over substance. Mahoutsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto - A slice of life about apprentice government mages helping people solve their life issues while struggling to grow up as well. This anime was fine, I guess? The characters felt very realistic despite the magical premise, and were definitely the best part, and it had a chill sort of vibe to it, but the magic system was both poorly explained and felt powerful enough to solve any problem which sort of detracted from potential drama or conflicts. Fantastic OP and ED though. 6/10. Mahoutsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora - The sequel to the above anime, this one is an incredible step up. There's no real relation outside of the premise anyways. First up I gotta talk about the entire aesthetic of the show. The anime uses photographs run through a filter as all of their backgrounds, combined with simplistic character designs and minimalistic music, and it just WORKS. It hits so hard. The photo backgrounds are beautiful and professionally shot, and the contrast with the hyper realism in the sound design and backdrops with the characters somehow meshes so well. Storywise, it's basically highschoolers at an internship program and learning to deal with real work experience and stuff like imposter syndrome, inferiority to their peers, and shitty clients, except the work in this case is magic. Compared to the 1st series, the magic is much more mundane and subdued, so it doesn't feel as much as a cure-all. Surprisingly, despite the premise lending itself to a comfy, episodic nature, the story goes places. Just a fantastic, heavily underrated gem that I highly recommend. 9/10. Pripara - Someone please save me from this hell. The walls trap me in a neverending nightmare. Everyday I scream, knowing that help will never come. Yet I struggle. Struggle so I can one day escape this torment. I feel my lungs fill again with darkness. I'm sinking. Deeper and deeper in a black abyss. Yet I cling to false hope, a dream of futility, that one day my suffering will end. 5/10 the first season was ok Soushin Shoujo Matoi - Interesting but highly flawed magical girl anime. There's interesting ideas and worldbuilding to be found, but it struggles to find focus and felt rushed, despite being an original. Villains introduced get instantly defeated in the same episode, the other magical girls besides the MC feel undeveloped and underutilized, and many plot threads feel unnecessary or led to nowhere. The best part and saving grace of the anime was the interesting father-daughter relationship between the MC and her dad. Other than that, it was serviceable, with solid animation and a fantastic OST. 6/10 Alien Nine - I love watching elementary school kids being forced to wear a parasitic alien on their heads in order to fend off against constant alien invasions while everyone treats it as an everyday occurrence as the MC gets increasingly more mentally fucked up and strained. What a fun time I'd rate this a fun time/10 and would definitely recommend this to everyone. School Days - It's ya boy, one of the most controversial anime of all time. Unironically really good. If you wanna see a dude descend into full coomer mode as he refuses to take responsibility in search of constant instant gratification, and the most unfortunate girl to ever live, this is a great watch to get depressed at. The ending was everything that was promised and more. The sheer buildup made the nice boat all the much sweeter. My biggest gripe is that I wished they showed the MC at least somewhat normal and try to maintain a normal relationship for longer. His descent into coomerdom felt very rushed, and would've been better if the anime kept the facade of a normal romance anime for longer. School days is a pretty solid psychological thriller pretending to be an ecchi romance, and while sometimes those elements don't mesh, it still works great. 7/10. |
| Been clearing out my PTW, as well as watching some other stuff I stumbled upon. Mahoromatic - Early 2000's Gainax franchise, so technically during their "peak". It was ok. Standard ecchi romcom involving a robot maid. Characters are for the most part fine. The story felt very stretched out and padded with alot of fluff, but the fluff was generally enjoyable. Action scenes were certainly Gainaxy, and were pretty strong all around. The teacher character was actually so annoying that it actively dragged the entire anime down. However, the ending was a really solid conclusion that did much to redeem the entire anime. Overall, probably 5/10 for the 1st season, 6/10 for the 2nd season. DearS - Please do not watch this anime. Another Ecchi romcom fetish fuel anime, except with garbage art, unattractive fanservice, annoying characters, basically nothing of interest. 2/10. Futakoi Alternative - Unironically the first anime that truly defined ufotable. From the director that went on to direct most of the kara no kyokai movies, with their distinctive style of slick 2D animation composed believably onto 3D backgrounds, it feels definitively "ufotable" despite it's age. Otherwise, it's just a really well directed, fun romp that alternates between solid drama and head empty action comedy. 7/10. Magical Nyan Nyan Taruto - ...Don't judge me. This was kinda cute and had a nice OST. For a catgirl focused anime, it was decently enjoyable and pretty solid compared to other catgirl stuff I've seen. 5/10. Basquash - BASED ANIME ALERT. You want some fucking sci-fi street mecha basketball? This anime got you covered. This is basically the Gurren Lagaan of basketball anime, in terms of plot escalation and hype, dumb, and utterly insane energy. 8/10. Battle Athletess Daiundoukai - Pretty old sci-fi sports anime. It was surprisingly really enjoyable, if you can ignore or get past the kinda weird and mildly offensive early 90's jank. The plot goes to some really weird and strangely intense places that I honestly haven't seen in any other sports anime (Though I haven't watched many of them anyways). It kinda jumps the shark near the end and becomes almost unbearably dumb, but it was still a really enjoyable time. 7/10. Zettai Shounen - Actually such a banger of an anime. If I'd have to describe it, it'd be a cross between Mushi-shi and Lain. A very slow, supernatural slice of life, about a group of kids in the countryside, growing up while interacting with strange, supernatural entities... and then halfway through they completely change settings, characters, and tone, and then the anime becomes something even more special. Actually such an underrated gem, though it might be a bit too slow for alot people. 8/10. Noein - Still watching, but it's already kind of a banger. One of those ambitious, high concept sci-fi anime with an incredible OST, distinctive and striking character designs and animation, and some surprisingly solid CGI for the time period. I've been hearing some buzz about this being a sort of underrated classic, and so far Noein definitely deserves that title. |
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