winter 2015

Yurikuma Arashi Recap – Episode 3: “The Invisible Storm”

The moment of truth.

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Beforethoughts

I considered dragging out the tension like an extended drumroll (durarararara…), but instead, let’s spend the last half of the post talking references and the first half talking personal reaction, which is this: I’m sticking with Yurikuma Arashi. I wasn’t sure if I would last week, but this episode assuaged a lot of my fears and gave me hope (and some outright confirmation) that my initial readings of this show weren’t completely off the mark. There’s still plenty of time for Ikuhara to step on a land mine and blow this whole, crazy experiment to the Moon Kingdom, but it’s looking slightly less likely that that’s going to happen, at least.

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Yurikuma Arashi Recap – Episode 2: “I Will Never Forgive You”

Creepiest. Harem. Ever.

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Beforethoughts

I had the same relationship with Episode 2 of Yurikuma that I had with Episode 1: On my first viewing I felt deeply uncomfortable and incredibly wary about writing about it. But after some thought, a second viewing, and a little bit of online research, I became invested in the series again.

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

Hello Ikebukuro, my old friend.

There’s a flipping mountain of sequels and carryovers this season, so I won’t spend a ton of time on them all, but I did want to touch base with the shows that came back, and let everyone know what I will and won’t be watching (at least for the time being – if the new winter shows prove disappointing, it’s not impossible that I’ll finally get around to trying out Log Horizon or Fafner, but I wouldn’t put any bets on it).

Familiar faces below the jump!

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Panning the Stream: Maria the Virgin Witch, World Break, Samurai Warriors

So scratch my last comment about there being no “middle-of-the-road” series this season.

Because this season is so heavy on sequels and carryovers, we’re actually pretty close to the end of the (licensed) new premieres, and I was finding myself with a lot of shows that were pretty much locks and very few that were hanging out in limbo. I’d still say that’s mostly true, but we do have one hard “maybe” this time around, worthy of a meet ‘n’ greet but definitely a series I’ll be playing by ear in the coming weeks. Past that there’s a big N-O and much smaller one, as we quietly close the curtain on the first week of the winter season.

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Panning the Stream: Death Parade, The Rolling Girls, Gourmet Girl Graffiti, Fafnir Unlimited

Now that’s more like it!

This season is shaping up to have very little in the middle-of-the-pack range, as it seems that I either like a premiere a whole lot or pretty much hate it, with very little middle ground. Not that this is a bad thing, mind you: It makes it easier to know what to keep and what to drop, without having to give a bunch of series 2-3 episode trials run beforehand.

The good news is that this batch has a pair of premieres I really enjoyed, which is about the only thing they share – well, that and their own unique sense of style, I suppose. They’re a breath of fresh air from all the cookie-cutter series out there, and I can’t wait to tell you all about ‘em.

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Panning the Stream: Assassination Classroom, KanColle, Testament of Sister New Devil, Saekano

Well, one of out of four ain’t… okay, actually, yeah. It’s pretty bad.

I’m watching Death Parade as soon as I add this post to my queue because I suspect (hope!) it will warrant a full meet ‘n’ greet, too, but since that first day of Magical Boy and Bear excitement, the trickle of new winter shows has been pretty uninspiring. Fortunately we’ve got some good sequels and carryovers, or I’d be getting downright depressed.

In this post, we’ve got one ball of strangeness with some potential to at least be pretty fun (and possibly more than that), and past that a whole bunch of generic, fanservice-y bores. But let’s start with the potential, so we don’t all feel too depressed going into our weekend.

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Yurikuma Arashi Recap – Episode 1: “Never Back Down on Love”

From the director of Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena comes a show about magical bears, invisible storms, and some of the least subtle imagery in anime history.

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So I’d planned on doing weekly posts on Yurikuma Arashi this season, and as of right now that’s still happening. This first episode was concerning in a lot of ways, but also pretty darn fascinating, so it’s not as if I don’t have a lot to talk about. Besides, I’m a huge fan of Ikuhara’s past works (Utena is both a masterpiece and my all-time favorite anime, and I quite liked Penguindrum, for all its flaws), so he gets at least a few episodes to prove to me that he knows what he’s doing.

I really hope he knows what he’s doing.

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Panning the Stream: Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, Yurikuma Arashi, Absolute Duo

Well, the Winter Season certainly wasted no time in making an impression, did it?

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.

So here we go! Magical boys, magical bears, and a boy named Thor. Oh, anime. For better or worse, this is why I love you.

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