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Summer 2014 Anime Season First Impressions

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Topic Starter
Sapphiire_old_1

Kyonko Hizara wrote:

Now brought to you by people with too much time on their hands: The Summer 2014 Anime Season First Impressions Chart! Featuring: Kyonko Hizara and deadbeat!
When posting, please use the following color code
green for if you like the anime
blue is for neutral
red for garbage tier anime

Glasslip:Glasslip is finally here! The fireworks scene in the beginning was really nice. P.A. Works' animation and OSTs are always beautiful.
I like the characters in this series, especially Touko. I can already feel some drama starting. The ED is cute. Can’t wait for more!


Tokyo Ghoul: Bravo. I love the dark atmosphere... and damn, Kaneki is battling a boss character right at the start!
Kana Hanazawa's voice like this, haven't heard it in a while since her character as Shiro in Deadman Wonderland. Really good.
I haven't read the manga, but I am guessing the soul of Rize will stay inside Kaneki and consume his sanity/soul on the inside.
Can't wait to see how this develops, keeping his humanity or becoming a full blown ghoul in the end.
Gunnaka
Glasslip has incredible animation, I'll honestly stick with it just for that, if the plot doesn't pan out well. The first episode was kind of retarded in my opinion, this new tranfer seems pretentious and somewhat annoying. I like Touko and the girl with glasses though, cute character models.

Bakamatsu Rock is kind of dumb, but it's not terrible, I'll stick with it for now at least.

Tokyo Ghoul was pretty interesting, it looks like it will turn out fairly well.
Mogsy
Man, if I weren't so lazy/burned out from work I'd set up a giant Google Doc for this. :c Maybe Bliss will set one up post-AX.

Anyway, let's get to the two shows I've seen so far.

Free! Eternal Summer - Free! recognizes the audience it's pandering to, and pander it does; a lot of butts and abs in this episode. It balances it out with some lighthearted but genuine character interaction, and that's still what really sells the show for me in addition to the gorgeous animation. please also keep in mind that I am a gay man, okay?okay This episode pretty much just served as a reintroduction and a change in status quo, and I have good vibes coming from this season.

Tokyo Ghoul - Had zero expectations going into this, came out insanely impressed. Decent shot composition, gory without feeling disgusting about its gore usage, genuinely tense at points, and pretty well-animated. It's got the makings of a good action-horror, and this first episode was compelling enough to warrant further viewing.
Kyonko Hizara
Free! Eternal Summer: I love this show, even tho I'm fucking watching it ironically. It stays pretty genuine to how the first season was, and smells freshly of men in tight swimsuits. I really like how this season picked up from the last, and I feel it's gonna be a bit more lighthearted than last season was.

Tokyo Ghoul: aaand the first scene is already violent! I'm liking this! That whole thing was dark as shit. I was going in expecting it to be just like Another, but this wasn't anything what I expected. The animation was nice, and the gore was also quite enjoyable.
Mase
-
blissfulyoshi

Mogsworth wrote:

Man, if I weren't so lazy/burned out from work I'd set up a giant Google Doc for this. :c Maybe Bliss will set one up post-AX.
To be honest, I don't really want to setup a gdoc this time around since it took way too much time for me to keep it constantly updated (and fighting with gdocs was just annoying). I'll see if my mood changes, but I really doubt I will. Feel free to use the old sheets as reference though.

Free! Eternal Summer: Pretty much what Mogs said was spot on. They pander to their fans in a way similar to how DxD panders to its fans, except remember this is kyoani, which can still pull out solid all around work. Still, for people that don't care to stare at guys, the show is a bit awkward at times.... those charm points... but you can still laugh and enjoy the general plot.

Bakamatsu Rock: If you think some low budget stripping scenes and some okay singing can save this budget animation with horrible plot and lackluster humor, you can try this show, but I couldn't stand watching it.

I am a bit behind on watching, so I'll have to add more stuff later.

Edit:
Locodol: A happy and optimistic but low budget show trying to capitalize on the idol surge. Like love live (and even girls and panzer), it is about girls trying to save their town by being idols, but the problem is that their songs were so boring that clicking on characters on the long love live School idol festival update (2.0.5 does have some nice additions) for more fun than hearing/watching that song/performance. Besides that, the only source of comedy is a clumsy girl, which gets old quite fast. I'll give it another ep, but I have very little hope for it.

Glasslip: As stated by basically everyone before, PAWorks is once again showing that they have the best artist you can find in anime.The story keeps jumping around that for the most part, you can treat this as a 23min technical showcase (with the exception of the ugly fireworks)

Argevollen: Combine awful cg animation with a super generic mecha plotline. Top it off with a battle where mc only seems to be aiming his gun into empty space, and ends up beating mechs with physical combat. Is there anything to redeem this show?
Navizel
Glasslip - PA Works and their ever beautiful art. Great soundtrack too. Despite those, I still feel like there's something missing that's why it's in blue.
Foxtrot
Tokyo Ghouls - Well, wow, what can I say? This has far succeeded my expectations. Usually horror anime are very boring and slow, but this hits you with action and blood right away. Great first episode, can't wait to see how it will turn out.
Doodle99
man, Tokyo Ghoul it's so good. I read the manga and woah, they do it perfect. Also, so much gore lol. And that animation <3 10/10

Glasslip: P.A. Works, is this nagi no asukara? But it can be a good anime, also the animation and the bgm are great.

and i watched Free! and i liked it, but the ED...
Mogsy

blissfulyoshi wrote:

Mogsworth wrote:

Man, if I weren't so lazy/burned out from work I'd set up a giant Google Doc for this. :c Maybe Bliss will set one up post-AX.
To be honest, I don't really want to setup a gdoc this time around since it took way too much time for me to keep it constantly updated (and fighting with gdocs was just annoying). I'll see if my mood changes, but I really doubt I will. Feel free to use the old sheets as reference though.
I'll probably set it up after this weekend, then!

For now, more impressions:

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal - Expectations were met; this was pretty much the first episode of the original with a fresh coat of paint. That all looks fine enough, even with a CG transformation scene. Usagi is annoying, but she's always been at the start of the show. I honestly can't wait for the rest of this adaptation, though, so hey.

Glasslip - The most PA Works thing to ever PA Works. Doll-like character designs and lovingly-detailed backgrounds, slice-of-life that has just a cursory focus on the main selling point, and standard character interactions hinting at later potential drama. Overuse of still shots with shaded lighting were prevalent, and the CG for fireworks was laggy and cheap. Characters are all pretty one-note so far and this has two more episodes to actually get on my good side. It's not really bad, so far, just the same old thing we see over and over from this studio.
Kyonko Hizara
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal: Holy shit, that was a lot better than what I was expecting. With all of the hype, I thought it was just gonna be pretty previews than a not as good show. The animation stayed close enough to the original style to keep it authentic, while adding a more modern animation style to keep it fresh.
Mogsy
Sword Art Online II - ahahahahano. This show basically opens up with nothing but justification for getting Kirito to play another MMO. The pacing drags as it goes into an overly long build in its intro, featuring a villain whose name is so nonthreatening that it's hilarious (Death Gun, really?), followed up by a date between Kirito and Asuna that just basically shouts "DON'T YOU JUST WANNA BE THIS COUPLE THEY'RE SO HAPPY AND PERFECT AND SHE JUST WANTS TO BE WITH HIM, THAT'S HER ONLY FUTURE PLAN". Ugh. Then he basically gets asked to play another MMO as a detective, and it's because he's apparently just so awesome at MMOs that he's their go-to guy blah blah blah blah. We all knew this was escapist, power fantasy garbage from the beginning and this show's setup episode serves to highlight that even more.
Navizel
Sword Art Online II - Pretty much the same as first season. Nothing really special. I'm still amazed that they are not traumatized in the slightest bit despite what happened on SAO.
Gunnaka
Sword Art Online II - Exactly what I expected. It's pretty bad, but I'll watch it anyways, because I hear the LN has some good arcs later on, and want to watch those when they come around.
troke
Sword Art Online II - My impression is only the first time the direct release said "WOW this cool anime" then I will wait for further episodes ..
now release
This Screenshot
blissfulyoshi
Rail Wars: Boring cast + ridiculous amount of facts about trains + a terrible ZAQ song (ZAQ can't rap). The only thing I liked was the animation during the fight scene (which was short as is)

Now I have to board the SAO hate train.

Sword Art Online II: I am not sure what Gunnaka means by better arcs later on because Absolute Blade was so bad that it made me drop the series, but besides that time to start one of the worse 2 volume arcs SAO has to offer. To top it off, we have slews of pseudoscience, lack of humor, and some pretty awful animation/cg. To my memory, the animation is worse than s1

Rise_old_1
Sword Art Online II - Meh, Manga doesn't say anything special for this season / arc sadly, typical ol'

over hyp-- I mean, anime that is known for a large audience because of the amazingly huge amounts of win,

and then Romance, just why..... all and all, just a re-run of the first season, with some guns.
The Winner Man
Tokyo ghoul- They did a pretty good job with the first episode though they introduced Yamori a lil early. I expect great things from this cause I really liked the manga.
Sword Art Online II- Dunno what I expected seeing as the light novel was pretty meh. Sinon is great though probably my favorite behind Yuuki
Aldnoah Zero-That staff though...They got big names working on this and it's real freaking good. Expecting this to be great
Navizel
Futsuu no Joshikousei ga [Locodol] Yatte Mita - Anime with clumsy half-hearted protagonist is not my cup of tea. Second half of first episode is just disaster.

Shounen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 49 - It was so bad it made me drop it after 7 minutes. This was created just for the sole purpose of fanservice for females. Nothing to see here.

Rail Wars! - Almost red. It is decent and has potential. I just hope the fanservice will not ruin the show any further.
Apparently, the guards in the background at the station didn't give a fuck about the snatchers. Unreal jumps too. I find it awkward that their classroom looks like a normal one.

Bakumatsu Rock - I'm really getting tired with all of the present-in-past anime like this and Nobunaga the Fool. It just doesn't work no matter how hard they try. Another show for females, it seems. meh.

Shirogane no Ishi: Argevollen - The only mecha so far in this series that doesn't look bad is the main one. MC already knew how to pilot the mecha even though it's his first time riding that one. Some parts were okay, some were bad. Watching a few more I guess.
Kyonko Hizara
Space Dandy 2: It picked up strong and didn't leave me disappointed. This episode really had all of the random and nonsense happenings that Space Dandy is about. And especially since this one was so out there and wild, there's no way it left me bored with the episode.
Navizel
Barakamon - What a lovely comedy + SoL right here. Beautiful characters, art, and soundtrack. Definitely a must watch.

Tokyo Ghoul - Well-deserved hype. The goriness of the show is just perfect. I have doubts about Hanazawa Kana being part of the cast but now it's gone, thankfully.
Everwhite
Glasslip - Beautiful scenery and animation! Gave me a good few posts to contribute to my scenery blog c;

Tokyo Ghoul - Seems interesting, very bloody and gory, but I don't mind ~

Sword Art Online II - Ehhhh it was okayy, nothing really happened yet
Kritzkingvoid
Sword Art Online II-It's okay for a first episode i just hope they focus more into the story rather than the romance. Still i see many people hating on the second season just because of the first season [Haters gonna hate]
If Kirito still manages to get a harem with a female avatar. I don't even know waht?


Tokyo Ghoul-As expected its gory as hell, but still i'm gonna watch it

Free Eternal Summer-Not gonna continue on it for various reasons
Rio-
Glasslip - First Episode ain't impressed me much (at least the comedy is good)... I get a Nagi no Asukara vibe here, so I'll try following this

Rail Wars! - Some Knowledge about Trains, huh? at least the comedy got me in the first episode... so I won't mind follow this further

Tokyo Ghoul - The Story, Graphics, Music, almost Everything in the first Episode are Awesome and deserve Hype much... About to start reading the manga aswell
AutoMedic
I got a handful of shows last season, lets do this...

LEGEND

GREEN - I like it
BLUE - Massive potential, but not going to give that much attention
RED - Not gonna even bother watching it for the rest of the season

Rail Wars! - Oh man, love this one. I'm hyped up on the next few episodes. The only thing that has been annoying me is the constant boob fanservice by that nerd chick. Overall, nothing bad

Tokyo Ghoul - That first episode is, damn. No words to describe it

Akagame ga Kill - DUDE, THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING. AND THAT GIRL WITH THE RED UNIFORM IS JUST BADASS AS FUCK

Sword Art Online II (Phantom Bullet Arc) - Almost in red since I'm SO disappointed at the last few episodes of the previous season. But I think SAO/GGO will do a great job this time. Again, not going to bother.


WATCH LIST ON FUTURE (Will add a strike if I watched it)

Jinsei - Shit, so excited...

Akagame ga Kill - Saw the preview. Jaw dropped
(Will be updated)
NoHitter
Let's start with SAOII:
Not sure what yoshi is saying about Absolute Blade, but Phantom Bullet is hands down better than Fairy Dance. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the battle scene next episode featuring Sinon and a guy with a minigun at close range.

I really wish I had more time to watch these but too busy so I'll be sticking to maybe four shows at most.
Topic Starter
Sapphiire_old_1
Rail Wars : This was a show I just picked up out of curiosity. I will admit that it wasn't the greatest but it wasnt that bad either. It is a big change of pace for me considering what I have been watching lately so this was perfect for me. While I don't really have a huge interest in trains, the concept that I read behind this show is actually somewhat interesting, so I think I will keep watching this for right now.


Sword Art Online II: Episode 1: 10% Romance, 20% Exposition, 1% Diabel-lite, 4% Traps, 30% Sinon, 15% Lightsabers, 5% Guns and 15% Absurdly spent animation budgets.
Opening was ok, but I still love Crossing Field more. LiSA is a great singer lol. Lots of good hints peppered through though.
As for the episode, they really went all out. Quite faithful to the source I think. I hope they continue this because I was somewhat disappointed with the last cour. ALO lost a lot of the subtlety :(

blissfulyoshi
Shounen Hollywood: You know, saying embarassing lines, without being in stark contrast to your character, esp when we don't even know your character, isn't funny. They tried to imitate other idol shows, but their execution is terrible.

Aldnoah Zero: "Terrorist Attacks" + Clean Art + some reasonable amount of drama really made this show have an interesting start. This first ep like most are pretty vague, but I definitely see a lot of potential in this show (plus I wanted to see a decent mech series, I hope this is it)
NoHitter
Tokyo Ghoul
That was amazing. The suspense and the character introductions. Following this definitely. (And maybe reading the manga in advance)
blissfulyoshi
Barakamon: Despite some forced jokes and lackluster art, there were some decent jokes and a decent moral behind it all. It was predictable, but this is more of a comedy series than anything else. I'll just see how it turns out.

Tokyo Ghoul: I have to follow everyone else in saying how good this show is. They did a great job of showing all of the problems the kid is going through with the eating and barfing of various foods to his painful hunger pangs to his wanting to be human. Whether is was from the seiyuus or the animation, this is definitely a solid work

Akame ga Kill: Wow, great contrast of light hearted humor and the very dark truth of the capital. Adding in a form of bullet time with some pretty gruesome murders, and I think this show will do justice to the manga. However, some of the action scenes could be more fluid, but I won't dock them too hard for it.
Kyonko Hizara
Aldnoah.Zero: The animation was very crisp for sure. I thought the whole episode would trail on like how the beginning was kinda slow, but toward the end it picked up. It's supposed to be a mecha, so maybe there will be another anime where the words mecha and good can go together.
Topic Starter
Sapphiire_old_1
Akame ga Kill : Great start, my expectations were met. They handled the gore better than I expected. I was curious to see what they would do about Schere cutting the mansion lady up.
The BGM was amazing, as expected! Solid first episode, if it stays consistent it can be a great adaptation.
The OP was pretty weak hopefully the next will be better. Glad to see they were faithful as possible to the source material, as usual of White Fox!
deadbeat

SoG Tava wrote:

Akame ga Kill : Great start, my expectations were met. They handled the gore better than I expected. I was curious to see what they would do about Schere cutting the mansion lady up.
The BGM was amazing, as expected! Solid first episode, if it stays consistent it can be a great adaptation.
The OP was pretty weak hopefully the next will be better. Glad to see they were faithful as possible to the source material, as usual of White Fox!
my thoughts exactly xD
Kyonko Hizara
Now brought to you by people with too much time on their hands: The Summer 2014 Anime Season First Impressions Chart! Featuring: Kyonko Hizara and deadbeat!
deadbeat
btw guys, i'd seriously recommend checking your columns in that gdoc since i added incorrect entries since i have no idea what some of the colours in here mean :<
there's a colour code in the OP. please use it :3
Topic Starter
Sapphiire_old_1

Kyonko Hizara wrote:

Now brought to you by people with too much time on their hands: The Summer 2014 Anime Season First Impressions Chart! Featuring: Kyonko Hizara and deadbeat!

deadbeat wrote:

btw guys, i'd seriously recommend checking your columns in that gdoc since i added incorrect entries since i have no idea what some of the colours in here mean :<
there's a colour code in the OP. please use it :3
Thats actually realy cool , if there is way i can help just say it


Edit : you forgot to add 3 to the neutral section with sword art online II and 4 with glasslip
deadbeat

SoG Tava wrote:

Edit : you forgot to add 3 to the neutral section with sword art online II and 4 with glasslip
working on getting it updated automatically. should be working now :3
also if you wanna help, next time set up the OP correctly. so many random colour codes in this thread ;w;
Justykanna

Kyonko Hizara wrote:

Now brought to you by people with too much time on their hands: The Summer 2014 Anime Season First Impressions Chart! Featuring: Kyonko Hizara and deadbeat!
Document appears to be 'View Only'? Might just be me, lol.
I plan to watch SAO2 and Akame ga Kill ... whenever I have time. xD
Navizel
Yami Shibai 2 - First episode is more of a sad story rather than a creepy and horrific one but this is Yami Shibai we're talking about. I'm sure this will give me the creeps soon. It's good despite being short and the different art but those suits the series.

The doc needs some love for short anime like Yami Shibai. just sayin'.
Topic Starter
Sapphiire_old_1
Document appears to be 'View Only'? Might just be me, lol.
I think that is intentional

deadbeat wrote:

SoG Tava wrote:

Edit : you forgot to add 3 to the neutral section with sword art online II and 4 with glasslip
working on getting it updated automatically. should be working now :3
also if you wanna help, next time set up the OP correctly. so many random colour codes in this thread ;w;

It might be just me but the doc is kinda buggy the collors and numbers arent show properly
deadbeat
still working on stuff. wasn't as complete as i thought \D:/

Justykanna wrote:

Document appears to be 'View Only'? Might just be me, lol.
also View Only is correct. only Kyonko and I can edit it since we don't want people randomly messing up entries
Kyonko Hizara

Justykanna wrote:

Kyonko Hizara wrote:

Now brought to you by people with too much time on their hands: The Summer 2014 Anime Season First Impressions Chart! Featuring: Kyonko Hizara and deadbeat!
Document appears to be 'View Only'? Might just be me, lol.
I plan to watch SAO2 and Akame ga Kill ... whenever I have time. xD
It's only set up for deadboop and I to edit. I'm the one hosting it and I don't want a ton of people going in and messing with it

EDIT: I didn't add any OVAs, Specials, or Movies to the list, so please let us know if what you watched isn't on the list so it can be added.
Navizel

Kyonko Hizara wrote:

EDIT: I didn't add any OVAs, Specials, or Movies to the list, so please let us know if what you watched isn't on the list so it can be added.
Shorts should be good (Yami Shibai, Strange+, etc.). Most OVAs and Specials are not parent story anyway and movies are usually available 6 months after or so.
blissfulyoshi

deadbeat wrote:

still working on stuff. wasn't as complete as i thought \D:/

Justykanna wrote:

Document appears to be 'View Only'? Might just be me, lol.
also View Only is correct. only Kyonko and I can edit it since we don't want people randomly messing up entries
To be honest, very few people did manual inputs so keeping it view only is fine. If you need help with gdocs, just ask.
Foxtrot
Space Dandy Season 2- That first episode was amazing, just saying. Dandy never managed to disappoint me.
Navizel
Aldnoah.Zero - Really looks promising as expected from a big cast. Your usual A-1 Pictures' art with an awesome soundtrack and story from Gen "Urobutcher" Urobuchi.

Space Dandy Season 2 - Space Dandy being Space Dandy. Kind of disappointed because it's the same opening and ending but other than that, still great.
Mogsy
Aldnoah.Zero - Really neat set-up. I'm intrigued to see where it goes now, with a slow pace and an unrelenting atmosphere. It's slow at points but it rarely drags. Characters will need to distinguish themselves, but that's bound to happen in a story like this.

Rail Wars! - Low-budget and pandery as all hell. It all comes across as both not confident in its premise and like it's trying to just sell a career in the transit industry. Nah.

Space Dandy s2 - More Dandy, more animators playing around. I adore this show.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun - Pretty close to green for me, as I actually enjoyed this episode. It's blue due to the fact that it has the potential to wear real thin quickly depending on the execution, but this first episode was cute shoujo rom-com fluff. It's all pretty standard, but it's executed with a light heart and charm. We'll see how it pans out, though.

Also, thanks, Kyonko/deadbeat!
Justykanna

deadbeat wrote:

still working on stuff. wasn't as complete as i thought \D:/

Justykanna wrote:

Document appears to be 'View Only'? Might just be me, lol.
also View Only is correct. only Kyonko and I can edit it since we don't want people randomly messing up entries
Alright, cool, just wanted to confirm. Thanks for your hard work. =)

blissfulyoshi wrote:

To be honest, very few people did manual inputs
Me! xD I struggled with the thing at first.
Kyonko Hizara
Akame ga Kill!: I'm prolly one of the few people that hasn't read the manga. The animation was very clear and and clean. From how the characters appear so far, I'm more interested to see what each of them is about. The pacing seemed pretty good, and didn't go too fast or too slow.
The Winner Man
Akame ga Kill- My favorite manga converted into an anime? Yeah I'm pretty damn hyped about this. A combination of dark setting with moments of comic relief makes it play out really well.
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