What Are You Watching?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Finished watching basically all the anime I was interested in checking out for the season, except for the second cour of Mushi-shi: The Next Passage, since that won't be coming out until the 19th.

Psycho-Pass 2 is off to a great start. The new characters will take some getting used to, but Akane is now badass and awesome, which is cool. It should have a solid season overall.

Gundam Build Fighters Try is just as fun as the first series. A shame only a few of the previous seasons' characters are in it, but I'm already digging the new characters, so it should be all good. I should also get around to finishing the first season, sometime, but I'll make sure to not to lose track of this season.

Based on the preview, I thought Shirobako would end up being some moe shit with barely anything to do with how to make animation at all. But, surprisingly enough, it's a pretty serious and interesting look at the japanese animation industry. Whether it'll provide any commentary or satire on the subject, I dunno, but it looks to be an entertaining story with good characters regardless. I was pleasantly surprised with the first episode, and am definitely interested in keeping up with it. I think I'd also like to contribute a Clusterfuck entry for it, if nobody has a problem with that, of course.

And then finally, I decided to check out InouBattle and Amagi Brilliant Park, since a lot of people apparently liked them. I thought they were good premieres, but at the same time, they didn't really grab me either, perhaps because outside of a few moments the humor didn't click with me, and the general premises and characters seemed too typical of other anime of this sort. I'll keep an ear out for what people think of them as the season progresses, but for now, I already have 10 series I've decided to keep up with, and I think that's plenty, and these two didn't do enough to change my mind on that.

So, ten series I've decided to keep up with. Dang, that's more series than I've ever been interested in an anime season. Some will likely fall by the wayside as time goes on, since, from experience, I'm pretty busy and usually only really special series like KLK or Space Dandy get me eager to watch them every week, but I can definitely see myself keeping up with certain series here all the way through. Nice season, overall.

Here's my personal rankings of all the premieres I watched:

1. Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
2. Parasyte -the maxim-
3. Rage of Bahamut: Genesis
4. Psycho-Pass 2
5. Gundam Build Fighters Try
6. Magic Kaito 1412
7. Garo: The Animation
8. Kaitou Joker
9. Shirobako
10. Amagi Brilliant Park
11. The Seven Deadly Sins
12. When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace

[Foggle]

So Psycho-Pass 2 wasn't FUBAR, then? Good to hear.

For me, this season is Fate > Amagi > Bahamut > everything else at the moment, though I do still need to watch Parasyte and Psycho-Pass.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yeah, I thought PP2 had a solid premiere. No real issues or problems in it that I could see. It all still felt like Psycho-Pass. Obviously, that might change later on, but I think we'll be good.

[goody2shoes]

So FUNi picked up and subbed GARO recently. Has anyone here watched it? I did and I think it shows a lot of potential. 7/10 so far, which will probably go either up or down as the series progresses. It's like a really mature, medieval dark-fantasy tragedy, featuring Power Ranger knights. Sounds weird, I know, but I'm really digging it.

The detailed CGI armor is an unfortunate fit with the art style, but it's not badly animated and I got used to it pretty much.

Also, naked manly men in my anime? I'm not gay, but this is refreshing somehow. Seems to be a thing this season, I've seen it in 3 shows so far.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I guess I'm the only one who didn't really care for Amagi. I just don't see it as that funny or that compelling, but I may give it a few more episodes simply because of the fact that it's created by Gatoh.

For me, it's:

Fate > Bahamut > Parasyte

There were some other good premieres, but these were the 3 that really stood out to me.

[Foggle]

So FUNi picked up and subbed GARO recently. Has anyone here watched it? I did and I think it shows a lot of potential. 7/10 so far, which will probably go either up or down as the series progresses. It's like a really mature, medieval dark-fantasy tragedy, featuring Power Ranger knights. Sounds weird, I know, but I'm really digging it.

The detailed CGI armor is an unfortunate fit with the art style, but it's not badly animated and I got used to it pretty much.

Also, naked manly men in my anime? I'm not gay, but this is refreshing somehow. Seems to be a thing this season, I've seen it in 3 shows so far.

I haven't seen Garo yet, but I'm thinking of watching it. Hopefully it's better than the live action show...

[LumRanmaYasha]

Initially I was avoiding Garo because from what I heard about it I thought it was going to be one of those action anime that sacrifices good story and characters to be overly edgy and stuff, but having actually watched the first episode, it looks to be a pretty fun action show and I got interested in it's story/characters well enough. Chock it up as the 11th anime I'll try keeping up with this season.

I've also thought about it some, and I suppose I did like Amagi well enough to want to try out it's second episode, at the very least, so...I guess that's 12, for now.

[Lord Dalek]

So yeah that crappy Twin-Tails show we all thought was going to be the worst thing of the season? ...turns out its Akibaranger Season 3.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I thought the second episode of Amagi Brilliant Park, though wholly predictable to the point I could guess what characters would say next (including the T&A line at the end of the episode), was more enjoyable, and I'm liking the characters and humor more now. Though still not one of the better anime of this season for me, I do like it enough to want to keep up with it for the time being.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This episode was slightly better, but I'm not getting any scenes that make me laugh out loud like this one: http://youtu.be/goDPezNGwVo

Or this one: http://youtu.be/vj1SzURv0uM

And while we're at it: http://youtu.be/ylOqGrOTn_c

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, now I just realized that I have to re-watch this show, didn't I? Well, FMP-marathon, here I come!

[LumRanmaYasha]

This reminds me that I should finally get around to watching Fullmetal Panic!. I'll start it up after I finish catching up on the first cour of Mushi-shi: The Next Chapter. 

[VLordGTZ]

Crunchyroll is going to start simulcasting Detective Conan!!!

[LumRanmaYasha]

HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT! I never thought this would ever happen, but boy, I am sure glad it finally has! YESSSS!!! 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This reminds me that I should finally get around to watching Fullmetal Panic!. I'll start it up after I finish catching up on the first cour of Mushi-shi: The Next Chapter.

Just keep this in mind:

Season 1- While I like it more than most people, a lot of others find this season to be the boring one, but I found that it's fairly entertaining as long as you're not expecting anything super high quality; I love the villain, ESPECIALLY in the dub, and the main characters are all solid enough to carry the series forward, for me; nothing outstanding here, but decent, above average fun

Fumoffu- Completely filler as far as the story goes, but totally worth watching as a comedy

The Second Raid: A complete 180 from Fumoffu; this one is all plot and little to no filler, and the tone is completely serious for the most part, and also much darker than the first season ever was; this is one of my favorite anime, as well as one of my favorite story arcs, as I'm sure you're aware of

Also, thus is one of those series where I'd definitely recommend the dub. I've seen both version and the Seiyuu are great, but Chris Patton, Mike MacRae, and the late Mike Kleinhenz's performances alone make the dub the version that I always go back to.