What Are You Watching?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Huh, I didn't think you were reading it, especially considering our discussion on currently running shonen series two weeks back. What do you think of it?

Two volumes sounds about right. I remember that the WMR guys actually hated it for a good while when it started, but then it started to get better for them later in the year, and now they rave about it every week. So, that kinda got my interest in checking it out.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Huh, I didn't think you were reading it, especially considering our discussion on currently running shonen series two weeks back. What do you think of it?

As I said, it's OK, but not great. To be fair I'm not completely caught up with it, but it's certainly entertaining. The characters kind of feel a bit flat to me, though, with the exception of one or two (who aren't even the main leads).

Also, as far as our conversation from last week goes, as I already said, it wasn't meant to be a piece complaining about how "all modern shounen series are shit and the older ones were the best," but as I elaborated, I genuinely wanted to see if there were any great modern series along the lines of the classics that I loved. I got into WT because I heard good things about it and I just wanted to find a good currently running series to read. As it stands I'm not loving it yet, but it's still decent enough to hold my interest.

Two volumes sounds about right. I remember that the WMR guys actually hated it for a good while when it started, but then it started to get better for them later in the year, and now they rave about it every week. So, that kinda got my interest in checking it out.

Based on that, perhaps it'll get much better by the time that I finally catch up to it. I'm about half-way there, so far.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Also, as far as our conversation from last week goes, as I already said, it wasn't meant to be a piece complaining about how "all modern shounen series are shit and the older ones were the best," but as I elaborated, I genuinely wanted to see if there were any great modern series along the lines of the classics that I loved. I got into WT because I heard good things about it and I just wanted to find a good currently running series to read. As it stands I'm not loving it yet, but it's still decent enough to hold my interest.

And yet you still haven't read A Silent Voice. 

Anyway, sounds fair. I find that most modern battle-shonen series aren't that interesting at the beginning. For instance, as Vlord can testify, I personally found The Seven Deadly Sins really goddamn boring for the first two or so volumes, and then the most interesting characters in the series showed up (aka Ban and King) and I started to like it much more, and now I really quite enjoy it. WT will probably be the same way for me.

Based on that, perhaps it'll get much better by the time that I finally catch up to it. I'm about half-way there, so far.

A bit of forewarning, but technically you can't get "caught up" on WT right now unless you have a subscription to Shonen Jump Alpha. From what I can see the scans only go up until chapter 55, but there are actually 77 chapters out. It seems Viz must have cracked down on the fan translators to stop translating the series. I'm sure someone will resume it at some point down the line, of course (DCTP got shut down earlier this year, and some other group quickly took up translating new DC chapters two weeks later), but I dunno when that will be since this isn't that popular a series from what I can gather.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I noticed that, but I can't do anything about that right now as I don't have the funds to subscribe to Viz. I guess I'll just have to wait a few years after that point until Viz stops caring enough to allow someone else to translate the manga, or just wait until they release full volumes of later chapters that I can buy individually.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I just watched the first episode of the new Magic Kaito anime, and boy did I sure have a blast. The plot was all over the place and there were a fair amount of holes in the story, but dammit, the darn thing moved so fast, with such a frenetic pace and great humor, that I just couldn't care less. Every Detective Conan fan, myself included, loves Kaitou Kid for a reason, and I just know that I'm going to have a ball every week watching a full two-cours anime series featuring his zany misadventures. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

Welp, watched the first episode of The Seven Deadly Sins. Was a basic adaption of the first chapter, which is pretty much what I expected. The series is looking to be a straightforward adaption of the manga, unlike with the first season of Magi, where A-1 put in more effort and worked things around to improve upon the original material. This is a bit disappointing to me, since I didn't really find the series all that interesting (in fact, I found it pretty damn boring) at the start and it took until the introduction of two more of the main characters for things to really start picking up. I will say that I would say I enjoyed watching this material than I did reading it, which is sort of a plus in it's favor. I just hope they get to the good stuff relatively quickly.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Watched the first episodes of Rage of Bahamut and Kaitou Joker. The former looks to be one of this season's best: a swashbuckling action adventure epic that promises a hell of a good time, while the latter is surprisingly entertaining for a show clearly intended for young children, with some good humor and characters that makes it an enjoyable, fun watch. I'll certainly be making an effort to keep up with both series from here out.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's funny, because I just wrote pieces on both of them for the Seasonal Clusterfuck today.

And I completely agree with you.

The former feels like a really awesome Hollywood fantasy movie along the likes of Pirates of the Carribean (but better than any of the shitty sequels), and while not much has been revealed about the plot or characters so far, it's good enough to make me want to see more. It's actually my favorite "original" anime premiere of the season (I consider F/SN UBW to be a sequel to F/Z, even though it's based off of the VN).

Mysterious Joker, on the other hand, is a surprisingly fun kids show that heartens back to the classic Saturday morning cartoons that I would watch as a kid. It's like Lupin III for kids, and I mean that in a good way. It's easily better than most modern shounen anime, at that, and I can see myself sticking around for at least a few episodes to see where it goes.

You and I seem to have the exact same opinion on a lot of stuff without ever actually having conversed about it beforehand, CX. It's almost scary how in sync our opinions are, at times.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It's nice that both of the "Phantom Thief" shows that have come out this season are both pretty entertaining. Certainly, their premieres were leagues more fun to watch than those of the battle-shonen series that have come out.

At this rate, it seems I might be keeping up with more anime this season than I ever have. I'm already at five with Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, Magic Kaito 1412, The Seven Deadly Sins, Rage of Bahamut, & Kaitou Joker, and then I'm still planning to watch Psycho-Pass 2, Build Fighters Try, Mushi-shi, and Parasyte. I'm pretty confident those four are going to turn out well, so that'd make nine anime right there. This is certainly shaping up to be a pretty good season of anime overall, perhaps one of the better ones in a long time.

You and I seem to have the exact same opinion on a lot of stuff without ever actually having conversed about it beforehand, CX. It's almost scary how in sync our opinions are, at times.

Great minds just think alike, I guess. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm at 3 so far (I'm pretty sure you know which ones), but I do want to check out Parasyte. As for The Seven Deadly Sins, I may just go with the manga since you said that it takes a while to get good, anyways.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Meanwhile, I'm super disappointed by When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace. I saw Trigger's name attached to the project, and I was thinking of the stuff that they've done that I like, being Inferno Cop, Little Witch Academia, and Kill La Kill. But what I got was a show with boring and predictable jokes, forgettable characters, and admittedly above average animation, but nowhere near as lively as Trigger's previous productions. The soundtrack is also really boring. Naturally the people at ANN seem to love it. Go figure.

[Foggle]

It's an LN adaptation, so I figured it would be lame from the start. Every studio has to pay their dues in between making great shows, unfortunately.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It's a shame Trigger can't avoid having to make shows like that to pay the bills, but hopefully their next project will be another great original from them like KLK.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's an LN adaptation, so I figured it would be lame from the start.

But, FMP is an LN adaptation and it's awesome!

Anyways, to Trigger's credit, they seem to have made the series way more bearable than it has any right to be. Normally I'd hate this kind of show, as evidenced by the premise. Thanks to their effort, it just feels inoffensively mediocre, which by all rights is better than any other show of this type that I have seen. That said, their heart and passion clearly isn't in this project like it was for all of their previous stuff.

[Foggle]

But, FMP is an LN adaptation and it's awesome!

True, but LNs like FMP are sadly the exception rather than the rule. Most of them seem to be on the same level as Twilight, if not lower. Speaking of FMP, I hope you're ready for Amagi Brilliant Park, an adaptation of Shoji Gatoh's latest work. It looks... well... godawful.