General Anime/Manga Discussion 14: Second Cour

[Felyndiira]

So, I just finished the first arc of Seiren out of a lack of anything else to watch, and I gotta say I'm pretty indifferent to the whole affair. The main character is the same gormless blank slate you can find in any series in the genre that tropefies mediocre. Not interesting in the least.

Anyone have a recommendation for something romance/slice of life-y to watch?

Off the top of my head I've watched and greatly enjoyed: Toradora, Ore Monogatari, Amaama to Inazuma, Kimi no Na Wa and Clannad. I'll happily take reading recommendations too, but I do feel a bit more like watching an anime at the moment.

Have you watched the recent classics of the SoL genre? If not, I would highly recommend giving them a try - Honey and Clover, Nodame Cantabile, NANA, Aria the Animation, Mushishi, and Spice and Wolf.

If we go back further, there's the original classics of Kimagure Orange Road and Maison Ikokku.

[endoperez]

So, I just finished the first arc of Seiren out of a lack of anything else to watch, and I gotta say I'm pretty indifferent to the whole affair. The main character is the same gormless blank slate you can find in any series in the genre that tropefies mediocre. Not interesting in the least.

Anyone have a recommendation for something romance/slice of life-y to watch?

Off the top of my head I've watched and greatly enjoyed: Toradora, Ore Monogatari, Amaama to Inazuma, Kimi no Na Wa and Clannad. I'll happily take reading recommendations too, but I do feel a bit more like watching an anime at the moment.

This is more recommendations on the romance and romcom genres, not sure how slice of life these are. I watched these years ago and I feel they fit well with Toradora and maybe Clannad, but I can't tell how they compare to the others you listed.

Lovely Complex
A tall girl and a short boy in high school are best pals and who have a great double act as an unintentionally comedic duo. Then the romance starts building up, and it's a rollercoaster of up and down and up and DOWN AND UP AND... Slice of life happens when the rollercoaster isn't too high up or too high down. One of the best parts is that it goes beyond graduating high school.

REC
I don't know how easy it is to find these days, because the name is kind of generic. A would-be voice actress and a salaryman meet. And share a workplace. Shenanigans ensue. Office work / advertising agency stuff and voice acting stuff follows.

EDIT:
NODAME CANTABILE
I had forgotten all about this! Another funny romantic one. It's about classical music, with conducting an orchestra being one character's thing, while another plays the piano. So expect orchestra perfromances and piano solos.

Maison Ikkoku
This one is nice, but I found it too slow. Very much about getting to know the characters, good buildup and continuity, but I prefer shorter series of 13 or 26 (or so) episodes. If you like longer series, this should work well.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Anyone have a recommendation for something romance/slice of life-y to watch?

Off the top of my head I've watched and greatly enjoyed: Toradora, Ore Monogatari, Amaama to Inazuma, Kimi no Na Wa and Clannad. I'll happily take reading recommendations too, but I do feel a bit more like watching an anime at the moment.

I may be misremembering, but I don't recall you being involved the last time Katawa Shoujo was brought up.I'll spare you my thoughts on every story, but Lilly's is a good choice for a classic love story.

[Arcane_Snowman]

I may be misremembering, but I don't recall you being involved the last time Katawa Shoujo was brought up.I'll spare you my thoughts on every story, but Lilly's is a good choice for a classic love story.

You would not be wrong, I'm sporadically active on the boards. That being said, I've gone through quite a few visual novels and Katawa Shoujo is also one of them and one which I very much enjoyed, in fact I just downloaded it recently to add to my portable hard-drive for easy access.

Lovely Complex, REC & Spice and Wolf:
I've read all of these (at least I'm fairly sure when it comes to Lovely Complex, it rings quite a bell so I might even have watched it but I'm going to do a bit of digging) and haven't been super inclined to watch them as a result, they'll go on the list but I'll more than likely be watching them once I run out of anything interesting of which I haven't a tertiary knowledge.

NANA:
I gotta admit, the art style has turned me off of this in the past, I'll throw it on the list but we will see what happens.

Mushishi:
From memory this is pure SoL so it's been on my list, though at the moment I'm looking for something a little more mushy (I apologize for the bad pun, but I couldn't help myself).

Maison Ikkoku, Kimagure Orange Road & Aria the Animation:
I'll put them on the list, but they're pretty long so I'm probably not going to get to them this time around. My aforementioned completionism has gotten me through some rather bland fare in the past and as a result I don't really get into long running series unless I'm prepared to watch it all. Short and sweet would be much preferred.

Nodame Cantabile & Honey and Clover:
I'll probably give both of these an academic 2 episodes very soon to see what impressions I'm left with.

[DoctorFaust]

Mushishi:
From memory this is pure SoL so it's been on my list, though at the moment I'm looking for something a little more mushy (I apologize for the bad pun, but I couldn't help myself).

Maison Ikkoku, Kimagure Orange Road & Aria the Animation:
I'll put them on the list, but they're pretty long so I'm probably not going to get to them this time around. My aforementioned completionism has gotten me through some rather bland fare and as a result I don't really get into long running series unless I'm prepared to watch it all. Short and sweet would be much preferred.

For the first, Nukoduke. It is admitedly rather long, around 90 chapters, but each chapter is relatively short, around 20 pages, iirc. It's about a guy that adopts two tiny catpeople off the street and basically how much of an overindulgent, worried parent he is. There's a little sadness, but most of it comes from backstory stuff rather than from events in the series itself.

For the second, the anime of Amanchu! It's 12 episodes, by the same author as Aria, and is a nice relaxing SoL show about people in a high school diving club.

[Fri]

So I've been watching 3 episodes of Youjo Senki and reading the equivalent manga chapters on that and...

My conclusion is: the anime is worthless. It's way to different. At least for me.

Basically the manga focus much more on the premise of how she's basically actual equivalent of ciaphas cain. A character who want to stay in comfy desk job far away from battle but keep being mistaken as total badass. It's more tongue in cheek and tell a lot more of her inner thought and its contrast with other character's inner thought.

The anime plays the premise more serious and grittily, with much less showing of her panicked inner thought in battle or other's inner view of her for example, and it's kinda makes less sense because of that for me. Her conflict with God makes more sense in the manga as well, because apparently in the manga there's a whole bunch of bickering gods who are really trying to see how to improve worship, and she's basically their test. Also the design is way different, but it doesn't actually bother me that much, the design is weird but much more unique.

Though I guess if you don't mind a more serious take of the premise you wouldn't mind.

I'll check another episode I guess, to see if it'd improve, but if not, I'll just read the manga. What a waste of Aoi Yuuki.

[JCarter426]

I've also been watching Seiren and I guess underwhelmed would be the right word. (Sorry, Robin.) I'd say the most positive quality would be Sakura Ayane's voice, but she's in everything, so that's hardly a selling point. But I'll stick with it as I do with all original anime so long as it isn't completely unwatchable. (See: Hand Shakers.)

Also, I'll second Spice & Wolf - I'd say it's worth watching the anime too, because there are differences - and add that Katawa Shoujo is FREE, if money is holding you back, but I've yet to get around to it myself so I can't comment on the quality.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki Kun. I got 99% success rate on that recommendation.

Well, you've convinced me to bump it up my list. Really I just forgot I meant to watch it. Just finished the first episode, enjoying so far.

[Arcane_Snowman]

@Fri: I'll readily admit that it's not great, but I don't think it's that bad either. It's just sorta mediocre for me at the moment. The premise is interesting so so far I am going to stick with it mainly because I'd like to consume the product in some format as it has potential (see below).

I've been trying to read through the light novel and so far it hasn't really caught my attention very well, there isn't anything that's really standing out for me to latch onto like the Overlord light novel (which I really enjoyed despite the anime being the same kind of mediocre).

Also, I'll second Spice & Wolf - I'd say it's worth watching the anime too, because there are differences

I'll keep that in mind, and probably bump it up the list a bit because of that

and add that Katawa Shoujo is FREE, if money is holding you back, but I've yet to get around to it myself so I can't comment on the quality.

As mentioned, I've already downloaded to my portable hard-drive for ease of access, and I have when it was first released played it to completion, and did do so again a year or so ago though I don't remember if I ever got around to Shizune's route, I probably did for the sake of completion, but she never really caught my interest. I was far more interested in the Emi/Hanako routes with the former being the one I probably liked the best from a narrative perspective and the latter being the result of me playing Hisao more or less like the "ideal" me.

[Hiro Protagonest]

and [Hanako's] being the result of me playing Hisao more or less like the "ideal" me.

Ironic.

Hanako fans got robbed. If, for some reason, they couldn't do something similar to Rin's story, they should've at least followed through with the idea of "for a person in these circumstances, prioritizing Hanako is a bad idea." Instead they tried to do an actually good ending and ended up with mixed messages (I like the bad ending more). Maybe it would have been better if the story had been way longer to match the glacial pace and the need for so much character growth (though there were still a couple of small isolated jarring things independent from the other problems).

Hanako is still the one I would hang out with. Lilly would be nearly as implacable as Rin for me.

[Arcane_Snowman]

Ironic.

Well, ideal is perhaps the wrong word, but Hanako's route was the culmination of me being me.

Hanako fans got robbed. If, for some reason, they couldn't do something similar to Rin's story, they should've at least followed through with the idea of "for a person in these circumstances, prioritizing Hanako is a bad idea." Instead they tried to do an actually good ending and ended up with mixed messages (I like the bad ending more). Maybe it would have been better if the story had been way longer to match the glacial pace and the need for so much character growth (though there were still a couple of small isolated jarring things independent from the other problems).

Well, I'd argue, perhaps a bit semantically, that the idea that should have been followed through on was the idea that "you need to prioritize Hanako's mental well-being and recovery over necessarily a relationship with Hisao". It's overly idealistic that she'd recover that quickly, and easily, but I don't think it's an entirely unrealistic outcome, albeit one which would have required significantly more personal growth but they could honestly have devoted an entire game to just exploring that so I'm not begrudging them cutting it short so that they could keep with the length of the rest of the routes.

Hanako is still the one I would hang out with. Lilly would be nearly as implacable as Rin for me.

I liked Emi perhaps the most of all the heroines, we share common loss and I admire her spunk, though I don't know if I could keep up with all that energy.
I also found Rin incredibly fascinating and would actually not mind hanging out with her at all, her problems with communication is one with which I am familiar with so that could be interesting. That being said I have no doubt that it probably would be a pretty difficult relationship as we're difficult to talk to for different reasons and there wouldn't be that much overlap.
In general Hanako is the kind of person that I would probably normally gravitate towards.
Lilly isn't the kind of person that I would normally interact with.
While I found Shizune incredibly abrasive in the visual novel, if I were in the same situation as Hisao, I would more than likely end up hanging out with her a little bit, mostly because I'd be too polite to say no >.>

[Hiro Protagonest]

Well, ideal is perhaps the wrong word, but Hanako's route was the culmination of me being me.

Well, I got the falling off a roof so I'm not one to talk. Of course, I was going after Lilly and just following what I knew about the game wanting you to focus on one girl... neglecting Hanako. But I think I would’ve left her alone anyway.

Well, I'd argue, perhaps a bit semantically, that the idea that should have been followed through on was the idea that "you need to prioritize Hanako's mental well-being and recovery over necessarily a relationship with Hisao". It's overly idealistic that she'd recover that quickly, and easily, but I don't think it's an entirely unrealistic outcome, albeit one which would have required significantly more personal growth but they could honestly have devoted an entire game to just exploring that so I'm not begrudging them cutting it short so that they could keep with the length of the rest of the routes.

I also said making it longer was the way to do it if they kept most of the first.. two thirds? Three quarters? I forget if Hanako had a really short Act 4, I think that was Emi. I think Hisao would still start a little different, but still in-line. They could possibly keep the same length by having a better version of Hisao who more actively seeks advice from others, or following through with chasing Hanako being a bad idea.

I liked Emi perhaps the most of all the heroines, we share common loss and I admire her spunk, though I don't know if I could keep up with all that energy.
I also found Rin incredibly fascinating and would actually not mind hanging out with her at all, her problems with communication is one with which I am familiar with so that could be interesting. That being said I have no doubt that it probably would be a pretty difficult relationship as we're difficult to talk to for different reasons and there wouldn't be that much overlap.
In general Hanako is the kind of person that I would probably normally gravitate towards.
Lilly isn't the kind of person that I would normally interact with.
While I found Shizune incredibly abrasive in the visual novel, if I were in the same situation as Hisao, I would more than likely end up hanging out with her a little bit, mostly because I'd be too polite to say no >.>

If I met someone exactly like Hanako, it could result in nothing (finding her in a corner of the library is the time when I might say something). Meeting Hanako herself (but like, speaking English) is when I'd have ideas of what to do.

Lilly, I couldn’t come up with the words Hisao did. If it's a mutual friendship with Hanako, I'd probably spend time with her separately, can't say how successful that would be. Depends on how well we can make up for the lack of common interests.

I've eased up on Shizune and find her cuter now, but I've never read her route and don't feel any need. IRL I would probably avoid her aggressiveness.

Rin, nope, never. I don't share her interests and her issues are not mine. But when I read her story I went into full analysis mode and it lived up to it.

[JCarter426]

Demi-chan changed the opening to reflect a development in the previous episode. It was just a minor thing, but I really like it when they do that.

[Forum Explorer]

Hello,

So there is a closing sale at the local HMV, and I'm wondering if it's worth picking up any of these animes. I know literally nothing about them, so I'm hoping someone in this thread has head of them.

Magical Warfare
Riddle Storm of the Devil
Devils and Realist
Fate Kaleid Liner (Okay, I do know a little about this, cause I've seen Fate/Zero and a LP of Fate/Night)
Absolute Duo
Blood Blockade Battlefront
Castle Town Dandelion
I couldn't become a hero so I got a job instead.

Any worth picking up at a discount?

[Lemmy]

Demi-chan changed the opening to reflect a development in the previous episode. It was just a minor thing, but I really like it when they do that.

Really? I didn't notice anything (probably because I skip the intro most of the time :P) What was the change?

[DoctorFaust]

If you like Baccano, Blood Blockade Battlefront is absolutely worth picking up.

Kaleid Liner is pretty good if you liked the other Fate shows and like magical girl stuff. Assuming it's the first season, anyway.

Don't know anything about the rest.

[BWR]

Hello,

So there is a closing sale at the local HMV, and I'm wondering if it's worth picking up any of these animes. I know literally nothing about them, so I'm hoping someone in this thread has head of them.

Magical Warfare
Riddle Storm of the Devil
Devils and Realist
Fate Kaleid Liner (Okay, I do know a little about this, cause I've seen Fate/Zero and a LP of Fate/Night)
Absolute Duo
Blood Blockade Battlefront
Castle Town Dandelion
I couldn't become a hero so I got a job instead.

Any worth picking up at a discount?

I don't like the various Fate series, but I enjoyed Kaleid Liner, up until season 3 where it got a lot more Fate-y. If fan service-y magical girl comedies are your thing, go for it.
Absolute Duo - generally I enjoy the magical high school harem stuff, but this one was dull enough that I dropped out after two or three episodes.
Castle Town Dandelion - I dropped it after 1 episode. Not bad but it didn't catch my interest. I had forgotten about it until I looked up the name
I couldn't become a hero so I got a job instead. - I watched it. It was entertaining enough for that. Not particularly memorable otherwise.
Riddle Storm of the Devil - the shoujo ai thing is not usually my cup of tea but I watched this one all the way through. It was OK.

[Rynjin]

I absolutely enjoyed Blood Blockade Battlefront, though I think I still haven't watched the last episode since there was such a huge gap between it and the previous I forgot about it.

[JCarter426]

Really? I didn't notice anything (probably because I skip the intro most of the time :P) What was the change?

Yuki's part. It used to be just snowy but now it's snowy and then not anymore.

Any worth picking up at a discount?

On the surface, Fate/kawaii loli PRISMA☆ILLYA seems like a magical girl series with loli and yuri elements that are not subtle enough to be called undertones. But if you dig deeper, you'll find that it's a loli yuri magical girl series that manages to both parody and rival the rest of the Fate series. It's really silly and reuses characters to make fun of them, but is also entirely consistent with setting, following all the same rules of the magic system and so forth, with the usual end of the world plot and action scenes and over the top powers. It's ridiculous but still believable as part of that multiverse, so for those reasons I'd recommend watching it.

I didn't finish Blood Blockade Battlefront but what I saw was interesting. I only let it slack because I was busy at the time, and then as mentioned above the final episode was delayed quite a while, so I sort of forgot about it.

Castle Town Dandelion I enjoyed but I don't know if I'd go out of my way to buy it and watch it. It was more of a watch as it airs thing. But I did like it. It's a slice of life thing about a royal family in which all the kids happen to have superpowers, and the king decided to put them on a reality TV show to determine the successor.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Magical Warfare

Truly terrible light novel trash.

Riddle Storm Story of the Devil

Barely enjoyably stupid yuri trash.

Devils and Realist

No Idea

[QUOTE=Forum Explorer;21715932]Fate Kaleid Liner (Okay, I do know a little about this, cause I've seen Fate/Zero and a LP of Fate/Night)

Has a few awesome scenes, not really good over all.

Absolute Duo

Can't remember.

Blood Blockade Battlefront

A pretentious stylish show that never manages to be as worth as much time as it thinks it should be.

They at least tried with this series, but it completely failed to click with me. If you like weird fiction and jazz and care if a show is Cowboy Bepop or Bacanno quality its probably worth a look.

Castle Town Dandelion

Episode 1 wasn't very interesting

I couldn't become a hero so I got a job instead.

Bad harem comedy with some slightly better episodes.

[VariSami]

Of these, I have seen the following, so here are the recommendations:

Magical Warfare: Pure, absolute scheisse.
Devils and Realist: Pretty mediocre and definitely forgettable, with its moments. The main character keeps calling himself a man of science but refuses to study the phenomena he is witnessing because they do not fit his existing wordview which is truly infuriating.
Fate Kaleid Liner: Awesomeness that would take some explaining if ever found. Interesting alternative Fate universe.
Blood Blockade Battlefront: I should get to the last episode, I suppose. The series is solid but overhyped.

[Eldariel]

I don't like the various Fate series, but I enjoyed Kaleid Liner, up until season 3 where it got a lot more Fate-y. If fan service-y magical girl comedies are your thing, go for it.

Amusingly it was the exact opposite for me. The fight scenes and the Fatey stuff I found cool but I basically fastforwarded past all the rest of it. It does do a good job of catering to both sides of the equation though, so if either is your thing, take a look. Certainly the best Saber vs. Archer we've seen thus far comes from this franchise.

[Lemmy]

Yuki's part. It used to be just snowy but now it's snowy and then not anymore.

Huh... Cool. A nice detail to add.

[Forum Explorer]

Cool, thanks for the advice guys. Looks like the only two worth giving a shot are Fate and BBB.

[DoctorFaust]

I just got to go see Koe no Katachi, the other movie everyone has been raving about recently. And I'm not going to get into spoilers, but I will say that it ended up fitting into the same sort of spot as the last two Star Wars movies have for me. Overall, it is a good movie. I really don't have much of an argument against that. Hell, there's about 45 minutes in the middle I would even consider great. The animation is good, it has interesting characters that are well cast (Aoi Yuuki especially knocked it out of the park with Yuzuru), and a good story that is by most accounts a fairly faithful adaptation of the manga. And yet...I walked out of the movie theatre kind of disappointed. Not majorly so, but still disappointed. And what's bugging the hell out of me is that I can't put my finger on why.

Still, if you get the chance to see it, it's definitely worth the price of admission. It's just maybe not something to go out of your way to watch.

[JCarter426]

So, Masamune-kun turned out to be a train wreck. I watched it expecting it to be not as good as the premise sounds, and for the most part it wasn't bad. But then rather than offering any sort of conclusion to the story, the B-part of the finale was dedicated to exhibiting a karaoke party.

I haven't read the manga, so maybe it was just bad pacing on the manga's part, or maybe adaptation problems. But whatever the case, that was a really good example of how not to end a series.

[BWR]

So, Masamune-kun turned out to be a train wreck. I watched it expecting it to be not as good as the premise sounds, and for the most part it wasn't bad. But then rather than offering any sort of conclusion to the story, the B-part of the finale was dedicated to exhibiting a karaoke party.

I haven't read the manga, so maybe it was just bad pacing on the manga's part, or maybe adaptation problems. But whatever the case, that was a really good example of how not to end a series.

Considering the pacing and progression of the manga I'm not sure what else they could have done without massively rewriting things. That's the problem with lots of these shows: the manga isn't written to be a 12-13 episode anime so an end after that many episodes will always feel abrupt and unfinished.

As the season winds down I think the biggest surprise was Akiba's Trip. What I feared at first would be nothing but excuses to show panties and bras ended up being an amusing poke at various nerddoms. It wasn't the best show of the season but it was fun. Only one episode left which promises to be a suitably cheesy epic showdown.

The girl and I giggled our way through every episode of Gabriel Dropout and we could easily stand another couple of more seasons.

Urara Meirochu was entertaining enough, and I'll probably watch more if it should get more seasons, but I will probably forget most of it if it doesn't.

Seiren was somewhat disappointing. VN protagonists are supposed to be bland and boring everymen so most players can visualize themselves in their shoes, but the creators really underdid whatever his name is. I cannot recall having ever seen such a blank slate of an MC. I liked Tsuneki best but disliked the conclusion of that arc.

The Maid Dragon and Konosuba were obviously good so no more need be said about them.

[Rysto]

Considering the pacing and progression of the manga I'm not sure what else they could have done without massively rewriting things. That's the problem with lots of these shows: the manga isn't written to be a 12-13 episode anime so an end after that many episodes will always feel abrupt and unfinished.

I'm getting very tired of LN and manga adaptations for this exact reason. Too many of them are clearly geared towards drumming up interest in the source material rather than telling a proper story with a satisfying conclusion. I was thinking about watching Masamune-kun at some point so thanks for the warning, guys.

[HMS Invincible]

No love for Youjo Senki? Sure the main character seems OP, but it's fun to watch.

[JCarter426]

Considering the pacing and progression of the manga I'm not sure what else they could have done without massively rewriting things. That's the problem with lots of these shows: the manga isn't written to be a 12-13 episode anime so an end after that many episodes will always feel abrupt and unfinished.

I'm getting very tired of LN and manga adaptations for this exact reason. Too many of them are clearly geared towards drumming up interest in the source material rather than telling a proper story with a satisfying conclusion. I was thinking about watching Masamune-kun at some point so thanks for the warning, guys.

So, adaptation problems. Figures. I respect that they didn't come up with a half-assed anime original ending, but sometimes following the source material is not the best course of action. It might be fine if the series gets a full adaptation, but considering the state of the industry, a second season is far from a guarantee, and one would think ending the season like that would make it even less of a possibility.

Seiren was somewhat disappointing. VN protagonists are supposed to be bland and boring everymen so most players can visualize themselves in their shoes, but the creators really underdid whatever his name is. I cannot recall having ever seen such a blank slate of an MC.

Yeah. I was trying to explain the concept to a friend, because I found it so weird. Seiren is not based on a dating game, it's an anime original story. It's stylized as a dating game for no apparent reason. So my conclusion was that someone figured if the protagonist is expected to be a blank slate anyway, then why bother coming up with more of them. Just use the same guy for three story arcs. Even with only one, he doesn't have any character, so why not.

[VariSami]

No love for Youjo Senki? Sure the main character seems OP, but it's fun to watch.

Aye - gets some love from here, alongside Onihei. Both studios did well for their debuts, I would argue.

The series I have watched this season:

1. Gintama.: It just keeps getting better with time but by now, I have no one to discuss it with since the series is too long to just pick up and caters to a niche taste.
2. Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu S2: As a DM, I really appreciate the rakugo and the drama is just so good.
3. Konosuba S2: Duh. Still salty about another 10 episode season, though.
4. Youjo Senki: OP characters can be fun, and this shows has one of the more interesting ones in a while.
5. Dragon Maid: Delightful comedy and light drama.
6. Onihei: I really enjoy the historical drama with swashbuckling personalities, even if it can be repetitive at times.
7. Blue Exorcist S2: I remember the first season being good when it aired but nothing special. By now, I suppose I have just lost quite a bit of interest in shows like this.
7. Little Witch Academia: I just cannot really muster that much interest in this. Some episodes are good but the main cast character is annoying and the writing can be all over the place.
8. Masamune's Revenge: I watched a few episodes and kind of enjoyed them but just could not muster myself to watch more (for the time being).