Reviews

Rule of Three Review, Giant Robot Digest: Comet Lucifer, Iron-Blooded Orphans

Time to mech it or break it.

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Some day I’ll do some serious soul-searching and figure out exactly what it is about the mecha genre that generally doesn’t appeal to me. Something about the way they handle militarization and aggression, maybe? I’ll keep thinking about it. Whatever it is, it means both of these series were going to be something of a hard sell for me regardless of general quality. I needed characters I could latch on to or a plot I could sink my teeth in. So, did either of these make the cut, or at least do well enough that I’d recommend them to people who do generally enjoy mecha series? The thrilling answers below!

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Panning the Stream: Sequels and Carryovers Edition (Fall 2015)

♪ Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back~ ♪

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While the fall premieres haven’t been quite as dismal as I’d originally feared, this is one season where most of my excitement was reserved for sequels, and so far they’ve done a solid job of not disappointing. Two 2014 favorites are back and just as fun as ever, campy vampire fiction makes its triumphant return, and we head to a familiar setting after nearly a decade away.

This season’s a little odd in that we have some sequels in the traditional sense (i.e., stories that pick up right where the previous season left off) as well as some “sequels”: stories taking place in the same universe but with different characters, locations, and time lines, making them fairly accessible to newcomers. I’ve divided them up accordingly below, so hit the jump for familiar faces, or locations, or both.

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Panning the Stream: The Perfect Insider, Anti-Magic Academy, Shomin Sample

Throw another potential gold nugget in the season’s li’l pile, at least.

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I sat on this post for a bit because there are still technically a couple premieres left, but none of them are available for legal streaming as I write this and I’ve got a packed weekend ahead of me, so I figured I’d go ahead and queue this up now. Consider it the last batch of new fall shows—I’ll throw up a post tomorrow for the extensive number of sequels (and “sequels”) I’m watching, and that’ll wrap up for the madness that is premiere week. If any of the stragglers catch my eye, you’ll hear about it in a Rule of Three.

As for this final batch, it features one of my favorites of the season and two more to add to the stack of unremarkable-to-ohGodwhy LN adaptations flooding our streams this season. Hit the jump for praise and headshakes alike.

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Panning the Stream: Dance with Devils, Beautiful Bones, Atashin’chi

There really is no accounting for taste, I s’pose.

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The stream’s slowed a bit in recent days, but we’re still clipping along at a pace that lets me give you another trio of series, and two have even earned themselves full meet ‘n’ greets! One surprised me by how much I enjoyed it, while the other I was surprised I didn’t enjoy more. Hit the jump to read on and shake your head at my questionable judgment.

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Panning the Stream: Attack on Titan Junior High, Mr. Osomatsu, Peeping Life TV, Starmyu

They sure are throwing a lot of, uh… different stuff at us this season, I’ll give ’em that at least.

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Got an odd batch for you here. Only one of them is technically a new series, but the others aren’t really sequels in the proper sense, either—more like spinoffs or reboots. We’re also heavy on the comedy this time, with mixed results, but there were some moments that tickled my funny bone. Hit the jump for laughter and crickets alike.

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Panning the Stream: Iron-Blooded Orphans, Concrete Revolutio, One Punch Man

After an early stumble, Fall may be climbing up again.

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The anime gods heard our complaints yesterday and saw fit to grace us with three series that are a vast improvement over the majority of the others I’ve watched thus far, packed with great animation, distinctive characters, and competent (or at least passionate) writing. In truth, these were the three I pegged as potential goodies going into the season, so it’s mostly just a relief that they weren’t total clunkers. Hit the jump for all the exciting details.

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Panning the Stream: Comet Lucifer, Young Black Jack, & Four Bad LN Adaptations

Off to the races once more!

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As a reminder, I watch every licensed premiere and do at least a brief writeup about them. I’ll do full meet ‘n’ greets for shows that caught my interest enough to warrant it. Everything else gets a blurb explaining what I liked, didn’t like, and why the show might not or didn’t make the cut.

The fall deluge of new shows has begun, and despite that exciting tag line, it’s been more like a five-car pileup than a “race” at this point. I like to include at least one full meet ‘n’ greet in each of these, and it took a whole lotta panning before I found one. Hit the jump for a flicker of potential, a half-naked doctor, and a pile of light novel nope.

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Glancing Upstream: Summer 2015 Retrospective and Review

Having some good old-fashioned fun in the sun.

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Summer might not have had the most groundbreaking or ambitious of series, but what it lacked in artistry it made up for in pure enjoyment. This season was just plain entertaining, chock full a variety of genres from high fantasy to crime drama to horror to comedy. Well-executed (or awesomely bad) pop fiction was the name of the game, and I was genuinely excited for the next episode of even the lowest-rated series on this list.

That isn’t to say there weren’t some excellent ideas and characters to be found among the batch, mind you. While “entertainment” was the primary focus, many of the top series featured strong character writing, showrunners who knew how to develop unique atmospheres through art and music, and an understated but insightful exploration of social issues such as power imbalances and bigotry.

School-Live and Gangsta dealt with trauma in nuanced ways, and Snow White and My Love Story depicted some of the healthiest relationships in shoujo memory, promoting communication and quietly but consistently challenging traditional gender roles and genre stereotypes. Part of the reason I had so much fun this season was because I wasn’t having to constantly roll my eyes at some trite or harmful characterization, but could just get swept along in a bunch of great (or hilaribad) stories. And that makes this a pretty strong season in my book.

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GANGSTA. – Episode 12: “Odds and Ends” (Finale & Review)

Well, that’s one way to boost manga sales.

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After a bumpy third act hamstrung by ongoing production issues, Gangsta comes roaring back with a stellar final episode that reminds me of all the reasons I fell in love with it in the first place. Taking time to expand upon the supporting cast while never losing its central focus on our main trio, “Odds and Ends” is one-part character study and one-part tense, action-packed shootout, drenched in melancholy and badassery in equal turns and looking damn sexy to boot. It’d be one hell of a great way to end the series… if this were anything even remotely resembling an ending, that is.

As has become customary, I’ll spend the first part of this post providing a mostly spoiler-free series review and the second discussing the episode itself. Hit the jump and I’ll let any newbies know when to close the window.

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Series Review: SCHOOL-LIVE! (Gakkou Gurashi)

Talk about never judging a book by its cover.

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Expectations are funny things. I saw the cover art for this one and figured I’d make it ten minutes into the pilot; had my curiosity piqued just enough by the end-of-premiere twist to give it another week or two; continued to watch half-intrigued and half-cynical, convinced that it was always five minutes from shooting itself in the foot and leaping off a cliff… and now here I am at the end of it, writing a full review and feeling pleasantly surprised by the experience.

As I’ve said before, there’s no way to discuss this show in-depth without mentioning The Reveal that happens at the end of the first episode. If you have no clue what I’m talking about and don’t want to have it spoiled for you, then go sit through the first episode (available on Crunchyroll) and come back. Otherwise hit the jump for the happiest surprise of the season.

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