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Spring 2015 Anime Season Closing Thoughts

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blissfulyoshi
By request, putting up a review thread.

This thread is probably going to be more for paragraph dumps, so for shorter things like what is the best anime this season, you can go t/342756

As this season is rapidly coming to a close, people have various things about the season, what they watched, what they liked, what they disliked, what they dropped, and more. Feel free to post reviews, general comments and anything else that really comes to your mind about the season. However, to prevent this thread from becoming a disaster, try not to post too many spoilers (minor ones are unavoidable), and if you are reviewing a series, try to wait till the last episode has finished airing to have a complete picture.
Navizel
Danna ga Nani S2 - It's basically the same thing as the prequel. There's no improvement at all. Yeah, there are some sweet parts of it but the prequel also has some. Besides, sweet scenes alone don't make a series good. It's subpar.

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches - You know they're rushing it when some episodes are longer than the others. It's really apparent e.g. problem solved in one episode. I did read the manga but I'm not going to compare the two. It's just that the rushing was painfully obvious. Had it been more than twelve episodes... Everything else was alright though. I did somewhat enjoy it.

Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku - Bland show with shallow drama and over the top ending. Animation looks bad especially during fight scenes. Average characters coupled with backstories that are supposed to make the show interesting but failed to do so. If you're looking for comedy you might like it though I would still suggest that you look for another comedy series instead of this one. It's mediocre.

Plastic Memories

Why does the bitchdere have to ruin everything? Anyway, it's average actually.

Oregairu S2 - It delivered. I think this is the only one besides JoJo that I always watch the date every episode is released. In my opinion, the art is better than the prequel. GJ Studio Feel. Smooth pacing also helped the more mature storytelling. It's a great series.

JoJo SC 2 - Well, it obvious that this one is much better than the 90's version of Stardust Crusaders. Anyway, this is imo the better part of Stardust Crusaders. That being said, the season two is just what you'd expect from a JoJo adaptation by David Productions. You just got to sit back, watch, and enjoy the ride. It's great.
Green Platinum
Half Length:

Danmachi: Stale and nothing new to see here. Ordinary harem character, while some of the dungeon battles are great there is inconsistency in their quality. Excessive deus ex machina just breaks immersion and leads to frustration with the writing. I also have a huge problem with using gaming mechanics in a series like this one since those mechanics exist as a limitation to games and introducing them into other works of fiction is lazy, I have the same problem with SAO and Log Horizon to a lesser extent. Hestia isn't even a loli, she's just short her physique is clearly not that of a child.

Etotama: I don't care for the zodiac (and this could be largely due to cultural differences) at all and I don't care for the cast. Nya-tan is incredibly annoying and while the CG for how much it's used is pretty good the fights aren't with attacks just looking silly and the bullet-time doesn't help either.

Fate/stay Night UBW 2:Better than the original but fundamentally worse than Fate/Zero. As good as the first half and recommended. Looking forward the the Heaven's Feel Movie.

Grisaia no Rakuen: Shitty harem character forced into a terrible action series stacked with way too much backstory for a season 2. What should be the plot of a comedy takes itself seriously with the only funny monent happening essentially during the final moments of the final episode. Much like the OVA the series operates more like a shopping list than an engaging story.

Gunslinger Stratos: Gun fights rarely ever work well in anime especially in this case as they often end up with characters with the aim of stormtroopers. The story has some interesting nuance to it and could be well executed, this just isn't the series to do it though as the plot here feels forced rather than naturally arising out of the characters and scenario.

Hello! Kiniro Mosaic Feels the same as season 1. As in you might as well be watching season 1 again as this doesn't provide anything new. Just Blonde girls and SoL.

Hibike! Euphonium: Series looks great and it feels like much of the studio wished they were working on an artsy film rather than this. The series has good pacing however is a bit light at the beginning of the series. Moments feel like the girls are about to kiss each other rather cheer each other on or whatever. I'd be happy to see second season.

Highschool DxD BorN: This series seems like it has reached a critical mass of fans who will see it to the end no matter how disastrous it is. What began as a simple ecchi series has now grown in scope and lore, and is worse for it. As the series has gone it has had to spend more time on its awful plot rather than it's fanservice which was always the best part of this series. Particularly at it's conclusion the plot feels especially lazy and poorly adapted since you could easily divide the episodes back into manga chapters.

Houkago no Pleiades: Gorgeous visuals and can really only be linked to something like Night wizard the animation for it's plot and how it operates. Kinda disappointed that the series didn't decide on taking the super depressing emotional pathway it had at around episode 9, but how it ended was still extremely enjoyable. While the club members are extremely lacking. Subaru and Minato are so adorable it largely makes up for it. Additionally probably my favourite OP for the season

Kekkai Sensen: This series is incredibly refreshing with it's Baccano-esque feel and likable characters. Each episode has it's own flavour so while I didn't see much potential from the first episode it certainly grew on me. A must watch of the season.

Ghost in the shell: Alternative Architecture: Ghost in the shell and plenty of other anime sci-fi's don't grasp me as well as they do other people. While I enjoy the ideas explored in these kinds of series, something about their execution especially with how they visualise the internet and hacking. Aspects of the design especially the mechanics look great. I couldn't get engrossed in the characters however and didn't enjoy my time with the series.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViviD: While the series keeps the feel of a Nanoha series someone who doesn't follow the manga is bound to be confused as the series abruptly started writing Vivio out of the plot and ending without any real conclusion. I haven't seen any news but hopefully this is a 2cour. Fights were good initially but they soon divulged into yelling super moves at one another. Also there is an inequality in our Nanoha vs. Fate complimentary fanservice.I still would prefer to see a Mahou Senki Nanoha Force anime.

Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku While the worries of the super pervert protagonist died down the series continual went on assuming you would like the characters without giving any real reason to like them, of particular note is Otone whose omnipresence for the last half really created more problems. With a half assed ending and nothing to come from this it really isn't worth watching

Nisekoi;: Same stale series, considering they don't use the locket to drive the plot forward it may be even more stagnant. New characters are larely inconsequential and signifantly more fanservice that last. Three solid episodes for the whole series, you might as well skip the rest

Owari no Seraph: The fact that vampires fly a plane full of explosives into a building during the day demonstrates the imcompetance this show has in it's writing, vampire means something these vampires are more similar to a demon or chupacabara. Stupid, unlikable gung-ho protagonist drags the story forward. What are supposedly twists are predictable and repetitive. With what is supposed to be the major groundbreaking twist at the end are we supposed to consider the Humans evil too? This series kept going down from start to finish.

Plastic Memories: I feel like a broken record at this point. Isla is a boring character, I wouldn't be so bothered if they gave her 3-4 episodes for the big conclusion but instead she got essentially the whole series. I'll give credit for not going with the obvious cop out ending, although the lack of time dedicated to grief was a bit of a misstep.

Punch Line: Lots of good ideas in this series however it was very scatterbrained and they generally lacked development. As a result this series was a mess and difficult to watch, it really need a longer timeline to get it's ideas in order.

Re-Kan!: Incredibly forgettable series. It had heartwarming moments but wont leave any lasting impression. The character had thier charms but the series didn't do much to build on them and many of the setups were predictable and repetitive.

SHOW BY ROCK!!: I have no clue what kind of person this series is for. Cyan is cute and a few of the characters are awesome but that's about it for the series.

Triage X: This series fell into the uncanny valley of ecchi shows, along with other series' like maken-ki as internalised forces ruin the shows potential. The constant fanservice and boobs slapping against one another ruined the plot along the the commitment to making the series tv friendly hurt the lengths the series went to. I can see the manga having some potential here but this anime doesn't make me want to try it.

Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love Revolutions Reverse Harem show with 11 Guys now, and only 13 episodes to focus on each of them. Yeah, doesn't work well, I seem to recall there was a character song I liked but that is all. Extremely similar to season 2 in how it operates.

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Zoku: Wasn't a fan of season 1 or the start but from episode 8 onwards the series was incredibly strong with particular focus on how the characters have grown across the series. I wont recomend watching season 1 and 2 for it's ending but if you are on the fence about starting season 2 it is worthwhile.

Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo: Pretty much what has been mentioned, extremely rushed. The ending is particularly hideous for it. Glad the series didn't get super buckled down in characters kissing one another because that was a problem I saw coming initially. Probably worth watching once.

Full Length:

Kuroko's Basketball 3: Continues with the same formula as the previous seasons. Akashi often feels uncompetitive as his skills are unrelated to basketball with no obvious flaws but if you enjoy the series it is worth pushing past that as he grows out of that phase during the series so it shouldn't be too much of an issue anymore. The send-offs at the end of the series lack any emotional weight as while I enjoy watching the characters the connection isn't much deeper even after 75 episodes.

Ansatsu Kyoushitsu This series is largely structured as a best of + all important chapters in the manga. While I haven't read the manga and it might be the same there; the structure makes the series seem like it lacks confidence with it's characters as it doesn't build them up before moving onto the next one. I don't know if there is going to be another series as this one doesn't reach a conclusive ending. The series does well at spreading skills among the characters and is a fun watch.

Ongoing:
Arslan Senki: The series often feels repetitive with frequent attacks, but the series has it's strength in making the world and scope feel larg eand complex. Of the main band of characters each feels different and I expect some thorough developments by the end.

Baby Steps: Same sort of feel as the first series, still does well on spreading out the information across the series rather than packing it all together but now the series is getting into the finer details and while it's obvious the general direction the series will take that isn't exactly the reason you'd watch this series.

Denpa Kyoushi: Unlikable protagonist and how he operates feels underhanded a significant amount of the time. GTO is much superior, we don't need any more of these super-genius protagonists. Also the voice acting is pretty horrible.

Diamond no Ace: If you've seen season one you probably already know if you are going to continue watching. While there are only so many problems a pitcher can have, the series keeps falling back on losing a ran and having the characters in despair for the rest of the game. Glad both sides in games have their problems and you see decent chunks that don't involve the main character's and their team.

Kyoukai no Rinne A comedy where all the characters seem to play the straight man often going through their experiences unfazed with blank expressions. The common jokes about poverty and debt served just as a wet blanket. While the series seemed to suggest there was I didn't any romantic chemistry and general series' about spirits and the spirit world aren't very compelling.

Nagato Yuki-chan no shoushitsu Yuki Nagato did actually disappear but the series spends so much time dicking around I still didn't care. As soon as Haruhi shows up she steals the spotlight and feels like the protagonist. No clue if anything is actually in store.

Shokugeki no Soma: This series is a fun watch but often the stakes are set too high which breaks any kind of suspense the series would have. The characters are pretty enjoyable to watch and Soma hopefully will start hitting walls in his growth which I am looking forward to. The series seems to hilariously have a fixation with umami where it often mentions umami exclusively on the winners of shokugekis.

Ore Mongatari: The series is nice to begin with but as it goes on and on it's just the same every time. I was expecting some conflict but the series is just a sappy shoujo series, might as well make Takeo a perfect bishounen as well as what he is now, since it wouldn't have any effect.

Best theme of the season
xxdeathx
Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon was okay to watch and decently entertaining at times, but it's hard to like it more if you don't like hestia much.

Nisekoi same stuff as season 1, solid

Grisaia no Rakuen was fun, but the crazy sci-fi stuff coming out in the later episodes was overdoing it

Seraph of the End bullshit anticlimactic ending for the first season of a preplanned 2-cour show. learn from aldnoah zero pls. only marking this red because it was the worst out of the shows i finished, but still okay enough to get me to want to see the next season.

Plastic Memories final episode was really the best it could be if Isla had to die. Just wondering who his new partner is and why they didn't show them

Punchline Weird as fk show but the story was nice, though confusing in several areas.

Food Wars is still going on, but it's end of the first part. The first few episodes were weird/uncomfortable but it became fun to watch once it actually became about cooking.

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches I haven't read the manga but I can tell it's probably really well written and funny with a great cast of characters, because the anime was like that too, but they really rushed though the story so to an anime watcher much of the story part is unexplained. If it weren't for that it'd probably be the best of the season.

Not much reds because I probably dropped those for being boring or bad. Sound Euphonium, Denpa Kyoushi, etc
AutoMedic
DanMachi - At first i really hated this with fury. I still hated it up to now

Oregairu Zoku - One of the best shows in this season IMO due to it's amazing character development. I can recommend this to anyone that likes charming slice of lifes/romance

Grisaia no Rakuen- Fuck i loved this one even tho it's rushed. Blame Frontwing for not giving a proper budget (lol)

Gunslinger Stratos- I stopped watching at episode 4. EPISODE 4. This show is one of the most dissapointing ones of this season, other than Triage X

Triage X- You know I finished this one not because of the tits but because the first episode looked interesting. One thing dissapointed me tho' is the last episode which is filled of bullshit and fanservice.

Plastic Memories- Dont even get me started in this one

Hello! Kiniro Mosaic- It's cute but not enough to convince me to like this show
Green Platinum

AutoMedic wrote:

Plastic Memories- Dont even get me started in this one
Please do. It's the point of closing thoughts.

I'm not so sure of your inclusion of Gunslinger Stratos though since you didn't finish the series. I think a good use of this thread is so people can see if a series may have paid off in the end.
NotEvenDoomMusic
Hi,
i usually don't post in OC, much less in any seasonal discussions even less writing reviews, but i do want to review DanMachi (if it's okay to talk about a single anime) because it left a pretty sour aftertaste in my mouth throughout the whole 13 episodes.
I just needed to splurt out all the things that have haunted me from this particular anime, mainly because despite having lost hope pretty early on, i've pulled myself through because it was a mutual act of agreement with a buddy of mine to finish this overhyped mess.

blissfulyoshi wrote:

This thread is probably going to be more for paragraph dumps
I've put a sentenced review in a spoilerbox, it's optional and the main focus of this post is my TL;DR anyways if it isn't against the rules.

TL;DR
- Pacing is all over the place
- Characters lack any characteristics/are plain cardboardish
> Side characters are given too little time to introduce/solidify themselves
- You're almost always left in the dark, explanation to substantial parts or mechanics is sparse/nonexistent
- Nobody had ever talked about this but; the audio mastering is atrocious
> All explosions/clash force tension by cranking the bass up to 11, my buddy and i were on the edge of our seats while watching any action sequence, cringing and basically fearing for any to appear later on.
>> Ontop of the overpowering bass is that it's unusually loud at times, which breaks any immersion that this anime could offer you.
- The general theme (not refering to the score/opening/ending) of this anime is a hit and miss
> Each element has been done before on a better scale

+ Has some very brief moments where the anime makes sense
+ Fight scenes are pretty (minus the SFX as stated above)
+ The world of DanMachi seemed very promising and has some pretty environments
>- Sadly it's never further explored

Spoiler free extended opinion/review/critique
The TL;DR should sum up my experience with DanMachi.
While my negative things about this series might outweight the positive ones and that the genre isn't something that i can associate myself with (Harem), i refuse to dismiss the series right away. In fact i really liked the concept and buildup on the first few episodes, sadly everything that i've thought myself "could have been" never happened and it straight up transitioned into a predictable mess.

In terms of characters; it's also bittersweet - it throws you a lot of characters at once that could've been interesting, but sadly are left without fully developing any true characteristics at all that could stick to the audience. Usually around the next episode/s they're left with little to no purpose regarding plot progression, reason of existence and/or overall significance in the world of DanMachi.
Sadly, this also applies to the protagonist/MC aswell - Bell Cranel.
His character isn't offensive or that he's stupid (which sadly is portrayed in his way-over-board naïveness), it's that he feels like a minor character getting the unwarranted attention from other minor characters which pushes him as "the peoples champion of minority, because no reason".

The heroine in this series, Hestia, doesn't fare much better in this regard.
While it is reasonable that she's so attached to Bell because he's the only one in her familia, it doesn't justify her amped up way to deal with jealousy or even any lonetime with Bell himself. Her sole purpose is to reek in a viewerbase and throwing any occassional fanservice whenever she can, and in that, she succeeds pretty much.
Depending if you like the clingy/annoying personality of hers or not, it can be a breeze to watch through or a living nightmare.
But her boob ribbons were a thing so that's always good, right?!

As for all other characters to avoid any spoilers;
They all only posses one or two traits which is prominent throughout the series, which is very lackluster.
Their designs aren't too bad and they definitely could've been brought more into light to make the world of DanMachi livelier, but i believe that additional expansion in personality on any minor character would overshadow Bell.
Also i haven't mentioned it in Bell's section but the minor characters all contribute more to plot progression than Bell himself.
Which is actually pretty sad.

The RPG elements of raising oneself sounded good on paper, in fact when numbers and alphabets were present i thought it could go somewhere... until none of it was explained and reintroduced with no context or relation except it's either talked about like "stats are greater than" or "stats are smaller than".
After finishing it, i actually still have no idea how gaining experience works and if the gap between the next alphabet/s is affecting the character by a large amount or unnoticably miniscule in DanMachi and to be frank, i can't be bothered to care about it any further than that.

I'll withhold any opinions on both the OP and ED.
The music in DanMachi usually fits on the current mood that it should portray, while it isn't outstanding or noteworthy by itself - it's definitely subtle and not too distracting.
However, when it comes to SFX, it's inconsistently bad/good at the same time but tends to fall to the lower spectrum on high-octane action sequences.
I'm surprised that it's something not talked about a lot (or at all) because it broke several occassions of immersion for me where the anime actually nursed me into false security and gave me a 120db sucker punch.


In conclusion, it's not a good anime by all means - it's also not a horrendous one either.
It has enough non-/sensical progression til the checkpoint of plot is reached for one to enjoy - everything inbetween is just slacking off and trying to be an anime.
The whole story feels like the writer had an idea and only had written down half of it. I do respect that DanMachi is an adaptation of the LN which is supposed to be better and has more content and also much more character interactions which would be pretty boring to seep through in an "semi-action driven anime", but striping down everything but the core elements just doesn't feel right.
Besides, adaptations can be done right, so it was a matter of willing to sacrifice or not. (although the anime did caught up a bit to the LN in favour of dropping content)

In the end, there are tons of better animes out there that could give you the necessary dose of adventure, action, romance or fanservice, unless you're attached to the character designs of DanMachi - you're better off watching something more worthwhile catering to your needs.

I mean it's watchable, sometimes enjoyable, but most of the time a chore to pay attention to.

I'll leave some one liners here:
It's hella fun watching DanMachi with a buddy or two that know about animes and harems that aren't serious about it.
Don't watch it with people that have no idea what anime is/or are serious about harems.
You still can follow DanMachi's plot perfectly fine if you're intoxicated, it doesn't increase the enjoyment on boring parts though.

Ok, now that i've reviewed an mediocre anime that shouldn't get this much exposure, i can peacefully kill myself.

End note:
I shouldn't be here.
Kitsunemimi
Hi NEDM :3
Shurelia
Going to keep looking at the posts from this thread, So i can decide which anime i should pick from Spring 2015.

Thanks.
Faust
Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works

Generally good all-around, with an impressive start all the way till 3/4 of the series, where I personally sensed a noticeable decline in pacing.

It didn't quite hit the spot with the pen-ultimate or final episodes, a bit too much dialogue sandwiched between the scenes.

The epilogue episode was a nice addition, but my stance is similar to what Green Platinum has already put out.
Made less of an impact than Fate/Zero despite the fact that this UBW adaptation is basically riding the Archer/Shiro-becomes-awesome hype.


Picking up:

Houkago no Pleiades
Ore-whateverthehellthetitleis
Hibike Euphonium
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