This season defied all kinds of initial expectations, for better and for worse.
summer 2014
Series Review: Hunter x Hunter
I’m not entirely sure how you review 148 episodes in 1000 words or less, but here goes nothing…
Spoiler-free review below the jump. Actually, think of it more like a sales pitch. And yes, I know it’s a long series. Doesn’t matter. Totally worth the binge-watch.
Series Review: Nobunaga Concerto
I write this with extremely mixed feelings.
Below the jump: Spoiler-free review. Lots of praise. And some rants.
Series Review: Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (“Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun”)
Yep – still great.
I don’t think it’s any secret that I love this show. Heck, I wrote an entire essay on why it’s freaking amazing. Hilarious and subversive, progressive and approachable, with one of the most lovable casts in recent anime/manga memory, I truly can’t think of a single thing to criticize about this series. Well… except maybe the fact that it’s only 12 episodes long (for now). I was really hoping for a Season 2 Announcement, but alas. Fingers crossed it could still happen. Until then, there’s always the manga…
Season Review: Aldnoah.Zero
Well, it was never boring, that’s for damn sure…
If you’d read any of my other Aldnoah.Zero reviews, you’ll know I had high hopes for this show. How did that turn out? Well… er… um… I actually did like it, for the most part, but… well… allow me to grumble a bit. Very mild spoilers below the jump. Also, opinions. Yaaay opinions.
Season Reviews, Sports Edition: Baby Steps, Haikyuu!!
These two shows may share a genre (and a final grade), but they couldn’t be more different.
Okay, so technically this should be the “series” (not “season”) review of Haikyuu, but c’mon – we all know they’re going to make more. Of course the big surprise this morning wasn’t that Haikyuu DIDN’T get an official Season 2 announcement, but that Baby Steps DID. Yes, The Little Tennis Series That Could will be back in Spring 2015, with more of its unique MC and equally unique take on the sports genre itself.
I’ve quietly become a big fan of the sports anime/manga genre over the last couple years (thanks largely to Chihayafuru, the perfect “gateway” sports show for a shoujo fan if ever there was one), but one thing that continues to surprise me is just how different each show can be, delivering its own style and tone to a genre that is, at its core, about coming-of-age, hard work, and striving to achieve your goals.
Perhaps no two series are more indicative of the many ways a show can go about portraying these themes than Baby Steps and Haikyuu. To see just how different, hit the jump for some spoiler-free reviews on the first 25 episodes of these two sports stalwarts.
Season Review: Tokyo Ghoul
Despite a lack of subtlety and some truly absurd story arcs, a well-developed core cast, a central question with no easy answer, and a riveting final episode make Tokyo Ghoul’s first season a worthwhile (albeit bumpy) ride.
Very mild spoilers throughout. I can’t review without discussing overarching themes and touching on some character arcs and plot points, but I’ll avoid any specifics.
Season Review: Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji): Book of Circus
Ciel and Sebastian take their act to the Big Top and bring down the house in this, Black Butler’s best—and darkest—story to date.
A Note on Spoilers: I want to make these newbie-friendly, so I’ll try to avoid discussing specifics and instead stick to overarching concepts and themes. There are a couple paragraphs toward the end that deal with the finale, so I marked them with a warning message. Of course if you prefer to go into a series without knowing anything about it, then the short version is: It’s disturbing and heartbreaking and excellent. Go watch it.
Panning the Stream: Summer 2014 Midseason Review
If I had to pick a single word to describe this season, it would have to be “eclectic.”
While this past Spring was dominated by very good sports series, and this past Winter was dominated by, uh… kami, I guess? (it was a pretty weak season), this Summer seems to have taken a cookie out of every genre jar. Action flicks, thrillers, rom-coms, satires, school dramas, period pieces, mysteries, Gothic horrors… you want it, this season has got it. And while none of them have been quite as jaw-droppingly perfect as Spring’s Ping Pong or Mushishi, on the whole I’d say there are a lot of solid, B-range shows on the schedule. It’s made it very hard to trim titles off my watchlist, that’s for sure.
And now that we’re six (or five, in Nobunaga Concerto’s case) episodes into the season, I figured I’d pop back in with some quickie reviews to talk about what’s still working, what reeeally isn’t, and everything in between.
Rule of Three Review, Adaptation Digest: Nobunaga Concerto, Sailor Moon Crystal – Episodes 2-3
Never judge a book by its cover – or a series by its animation.
I’ve been playing catch-up all week (IRL and online) thanks to last week’s LeakyCon whirlwind, so this is coming out rather later than intended. Thankfully this pair works well together, as both are adaptations of well-regarded manga and both suffer from a serious case of the Not Very Good Animation Blues. Can story overcome animation? Hit the jump to find out.
The Josei Next Door 