...what are you watching...

Spring anime list:

Mahou Shoujo Ore 1-2! just aired. This sounds and looks completely stupid..a young female singing idol wannabee turns into a magical girl/male muscle-man by her yakuza-shaped mascot sidekick. She fights demons with magical hairpin grenades and beats them into a bloody pulp with her magical wand. It basically takes the trope of the magical shoujo genre and applies a gender-bending twist to it. Her love interest is a successful male idol who takes a weird liking to her male form when she saves him. While very silly, it sorta works. The pacing and comedic timing is pretty good. The panty crotch shot...LOL. Plus, her idol partner confesses her love to her which allows her to change into a magical muscle man...and I'm hoping their manager continues to follow them with his camera.

Golden Kamui: A popular historical fiction manga about the Japanese Ainu, a gold rush and political stuff looks pretty badass.

Piano no Mori: I remember the one-shot OVA being interesting. Didn't know it was a 26 volume manga. Hope it's good.

Devil's Line Vampires.

Hinamatsuri: Yakuza and a psychic girl comedy.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai: A romantic drama...looks pretty.

Pretty sure these two shows stuff each episode with a whole volume's worth of story.



Shoukoku no Altair 2-8! It's a little tough keeping track of all the characters and their loyalties, but it's fast-paced, and still fairly interesting. After the fallout of helping his friend in a border town and preventing war, Mahmut loses his Pasha position for not realizing what the higher-ups really wanted. He then becomes a spy for Zaganos Pasha and travels to other countries. While I think many of these characters are based on real historical figures from the Ottoman Empire, the anime moves much too quickly for any history to be learned. It rather focuses on Mahmut's ability to gain experience and knowledge.



Knight's & Magic 1-10! Not sure why that apostrophe is there in the title, but hey, it makes it easier to google? The story was originally a web novel which got picked up as printed light novels, then manga, now anime. A modern day programmer who is admired by his coworkers is killed in a car accident after a busy day. As he dies, he laments over the fact that he cannot finish building his toy mechs. He is reborn as a young boy in a medieval world where knights, magic and mech exist. He takes to his new life quickly and enthusiastically. It's not an original set-up as there are plenty of anime with otaku boys who get stuck in alternative fantasy worlds, but Studio 8-bit produces top quality anime, and the main character, Ernesti (Eru), is quite adorable and likable. There's no dwelling over his past life. He excitedly focuses on building mechs to defeat demons and the enemy kingdom.

School is back in session...time for a new season of anime:
Inuyashiki: A middle-aged man becomes a younger man. The actor, Kanata Hongou, will be voicing the main (young) character in the anime and playing the same character in the upcoming live-action movie.
Houseki no Kuni: Genderless people are made up of gems...weird.
Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou: the day-to-day lives of a couple little girls who are the last survivors of humanity.
Black Clover: the 'pre-teen boys who beat each other up' show of this season
Juuni Taisen: from the author of the Monogatari series.
Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - The Animated Series: Another welcome remake.
3-gatsu no Lion S2: more please...when can I see the live-action movie?

Just started watching a really good kdrama....
And I saw that Naruto Shippuden ended with its 500th episode, so I may binge watch this. I already binge-read the manga which was fun. Thankfully, there are nice guides out there that cut the fillers out of the 500 episode anime. I think I left off on episode 138...

But let's see what's kind of anime is on this spring:
Boruto: Naruto's son and gang in a ninja world with tech...this looks like a pale-imitation of Naruto. I tried to watch the movie...it was very mediocre. I probably won't watch more than one episode.
Gran Blue Fantasy: A nice looking RPG fantasy anime
Clockwork Planet: Interesting sounding sci-fi anime
Kabukibu: Kabuki club in high school anime.
Atom The Beginning: Prequel-ish anime to Astroboy?
Natsume Yuujinchou Roku: More chubby cat
Attack on Titan 2: More hungry giants

Anime list for the fall...

Natsume Yuujinchou Go: 5th season of this series. More Nyanko-sensei is always a good thing.

Drifters: action eye-candy. Historical figures are plucked out of time to save the world.

Classicaloid: Beethoven and Mozart have magical powers and fight mechs? Sounds absurdly Japan.

3-gatsu no Lion: The latest manga from Umino Chika won a bunch of awards, so might as well check out the anime. It's about shogi...Japan really loves its game anime genre.

Fune wo Amu: about a dictionary editor, but is on many a list as being highly anticipated.

The spring anime season is usually filled with promising shows. Here are the ones that look interesting:

Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney: I've never seen a courtroom anime. Might as well start here.

Boku no Hero Academia: The shounen manga is quite popular so I expect some fun & entertaining fights.

Macross Delta: Will watch one episode because it's Macross.

Kumamiko: Talking bears. This looks absolutely adorable.

Sailor Moon Crystal: is back with the S series...Uranus and Neptune...the best couple in anime, and I did always enjoy Professor Tomoe as the bad guy. I hope the production value gets a boost.

Joker Game: a spy mystery

Super Lovers: BL eye-candy

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri: From the studio that worked on Attack on Titan, comes a similar-type anime. The promo is very sleek and it's being aired on Amazon Prime, so might as well check it out.

Sakamoto Desu ga?: A comedy about the perfect student.

Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge: A comedy in which the main character is the opposite of Sakamoto above.

Magi Sinbad no Bouken: Sinbad was always the more interesting character out of the rest in Magi. The OVAs were also mildly entertaining, so a season of Sinbad should be fun.

Nanatsu no Taizai 16-23! Enjoying the super-fast pacing of the story. Elizabeth is captured and teleported away. Meliodas, Ban and Gowther follow to the castle..the others soon follow. On the other side is Arthur and Merlin; Merlin being the last Sin. Pretty bloody fun fights featuring Diane, Gowther and King so far. As always the good guys are losing....but only until they get a chance to show their true strength. Lots of heads flying when they get to the 'main boss', but gotta love the anime miracles. It's a shame the pig had to die.

Durarara!! x 2 4! sorry...other than a passing interest in Celty, the rest of the cast put me to sleep. Dropped.

Assasination Classroom 2-3! each episode seems to focus on one student's personal problems and how Koro-sensei is able to help them through 'tough love' via assassination attempts. Unique premise, and mildly interesting...but knowing that the manga hasn't ended yet prevents me from having interest in seeing what happens in the anime.



Sailor Moon Crystal 15-18! introduces the Black Moon arc. Glad to see Sailor Pluto in the opening. So in this arc, the Sailor Soldiers power-up only to be abducted. Thankfully, in episode 18, Tuxedo Mask gets his 'la smoking bomber' attack....haha, the attacks were funny in the original and are still funny.

This spring's lineup looks more entertaining...
Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works Part 2
Kyoukai no Rinne
Kekkai Sensen
Arslan Senki
Digimon Adventure tri...lol.

Still alive, just busy watching non-anime/fandom related time wasters. Ok, Hannibal probably has a fandom that is probably too scary to look into :)

The only anime show worth watching the past winter (never-ending winter...woot for snow today) is Hunter x Hunter. Been an anime fan long enough that most new shows remind me of something else or the fan-candy isn't as fun anymore. Looking forward to Sailormoon Crystal..LOL.

Anyway,


Hunter x Hunter 2014 114-122! Ah...the suspense. While the chimera-ant arc is a tense and engaging story arc, Gon feels OOC and it's a tad depressing. Episode 116 is a sad point in Gon and Killua's relationship. And while the chimera ants' personalities start getting interesting once they realize their 'human' side, the lopsidedness of the level of power is a small annoyance. It'd be nice to see the hunters not get pummeled...or survive by sheer luck for once. Anyway, episode 122 finally reached the king ant versus Netero's fight.

Spring list:
Mushishi Zoku Shou: return of Ginko and the laid-back sometimes creepy stories

Captain Earth: will watch 1 episode because of the title.

Escha & Logy no Atelier: Tasogare no Sora no Renkinjutsushi: the promo didn't look horrible.

Mekaku City Actors: will watch 1 episode because of Studio Shaft.

Hunter x Hunter 2013 105-110! Knov sets up portals in the palace but is scared off from being a part of the fight. Palm also comes into play. Killua recovers thanks to the octopus chimera. I guess it is significant that Gon's influence over Killua shows when Killua defines his friendship with the octopus. All the episode are building up to the final battles. Looking forward to them.


Monogatari S2 21-25! Referring to Nadeko's arc, Senjougahara asks Kaiki for help. Kaiki is pretty refreshing as a untrustworthy bad guy character. The opening theme for this arc is pretty horrible though. He cannot sing very well. Kaiki spends his time gaining Nadeko's trust before trying to deceive her.

Winter list
Space Dandy: Studio Bones and Watanabe Shinichiro...no Yoko Kanno?
Noragami: also Studio Bones...looks like eye-candy and action
Nobunaga the Fool: Satelight mech anime? Leonard Da Vinci? ha.
Hoozuki no Reitetsu: Interesting promo
pupa: didn't I have this on an earlier list?

one of those rainy weeks...zzzz....

Haven't seen any new anime series worth mentioning yet, but do expect at least 1 upcoming show to stick with...

How about some good old tv?
ABC's SHIELD is rather bland. They need to trim the cast or completely replace them; especially the macho pretty boy and the computer wiz who has the poor acting skills...and the two scientists who annoy everyone.

FOX's Being Human looks somewhat promising, but doesn't start until November.

Here are some British dramas on my radar:
Quirke
Peaky Blinders
Little Favour: not a drama series...but who cares.

Can't say that this fall's new anime list looks interesting, but here are a couple shows that did not have websites that did not have too much moe:
Samurai Flamenco - the title made me laugh...supermodel turned superhero
Pupa - brother and his sister who has turned to cannibalism...wtf japan and their cannibal genre...titans not enough?

Monogatari S2 10! anticlimactic, but sweet end to the time travel arc. Even though I keep looking forward to some action-packed climactic battle and they don't give me it, I do like how they resolve their problems.

Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist 9! cultural festival at the school...zzz....

Hunter x Hunter 2013 95! Gon's 30 days are up and everyone plans to fight their opponents. Killua's sad face worse than Gon's sad face.

Shingeki no Kyojin 22! After Levi shows off his skills and helps Mikasa save Eren, the aftermath of their mission has everyone devestated. I can see why fanboys like Levi.