Anime Questions, Recommendations, and Discussion Thread

Picked up Lazarus, Witch Watch, Kowloon Generic Romance, The Apothecary Diaries Cour 2 this season. Also, rewatching Neon Genesis Evangellion.

I watched two movies the past few weeks:

• Genius Party

This is a collection of animated short films from different directors. The two notable ones here for me were Masaaki Yuasa and Shinichirou Watanabe. Happy Machine (Masaaki) was my favorite! The little baby character (and the overall vibe of it) reminded me of Pendleton Ward's Adventure Time.

There were other really quirky ones in the collection too. Deathtic 4 was different from the rest. It was 3DCG and I don't know the language (it sounds European). Interestingly, there's a scene there where the zombies said they were fighting "injustices" and it shows them trying to pick a fight with two girls wearing a US flag and USSR flag suits (it was funny). Genius Party (same title as the collection) was chaotic and fun while Limit Cycle was really (intentionally) boring (it's about a salaryman).

The more "normal" ones were Shanghai Dragon, Doorbell, and Baby Blue (Shinichirou). Shanghai Dragon was partly in Chinese because it's set in China. I think anyone familiar with Japan-China relations will raise eyebrows here because it portays a poor China and a technologically advanced Japan, but at the end it was the Chinese boy who saved everyone through his imagination as opposed to the technology of Japan. Doorbell reminded me of Satoshi Kon, and Baby Blue was maybe my favorite for the "normal" shorts.

• Ghost in the Shell (1995 movie)

I had this in my watchlist for a looong time (because it's a certified classic) and I'm happy that I did not watch it earlier. I don't think I would have appreciated this at a young age. I think this is the second Oshii Mamoru movie I watched. The first was Angel's Egg which was pretty much the ending of GITS. There's already a wealth of information and reviews on GITS especially by Western writers so I don't really have to say much here.

But I noticed how spirituality or religion always ties with technology in anime. People who've seen Serial Experiments Lain probably know what I mean. It's very similar to GITS. Evangelion is another example. Also, it might sound a bit odd but it reminds me a bit of the "programming" in Angel Beats too which I complete last month.

(Also Major Kusanagi is very beautiful. Holy shit.)

This week I might watch Genius Party 2 and maybe look for an older series to finish (maybe more Masaaki Yuasa stuff).

Picked up two shows this week:

• Witch Watch - It's fun and cute. Not the greatest thing in the world, but I enjoy a good gag anime every now and again. I think it suffers from the episodic pacing of the manga though; it felt weird when it jumped to a completely different story halfway through the episode. The OP is beautiful btw. Watch it once even if you don't watch this show.
• Yakitate Japan - I sat down to watch Kowloon Generic Romance with my wife yesterday and then we watched this instead. It was pretty funny. Main character wants to be a baker. Luckily he has the cheat skill of "slightly warmer than average hands". A fun show from 2004 that feels like a show from 2004. After we watched the first episode my wife made 3 loaves of bread. Good stuff. We'll definitely watch more of it.

We'll probably be giving Kowloon Generic Romance another go, as well as Gundam GQuuuuuux, and of course we're still watching Apothecary Diaries.

I've been pretty busy lately, so the Spring season snuck up on me. So far, I'm continuing Apothecary Diaries and I watched the 1st ep of the 2nd season of SHOSHIMIN today. The former is still brilliant, and the latter started off great. Other than that, I'll need to look at Anichart or something.

Not had time to continue much of RWBY and I'm not sure I will anymore. Last time I was in the mood for something silly, but I'm not sure I am anymore.

This was a great week for old anime.

I started off with the rest of Noragami Aragoto, which was very good. Noragami in general has been a pleasant surprise - it doesn't seem to get a lot of attention, but it's really quite good, in a sort of low-key, just-all-around-good sense. This season had two main arcs, and both of them were interesting and well-executed (which was especially satisfying for the first one, which dealt with a central drama that had been lurking in the background since the start, and about which we'd already gotten enough hints that there weren't many surprises left).

Then I bounced around for a bit before ending up on Oda Nobuna no Yabou. I was in the mood for cute girls doing something, and like the protagonist, have spent far too much time playing Nobunaga's Ambition, so Cute Girls Doing the Warring States it was. And while I expected it to be cute and stylish and sort of goofy, I didn't expect it to be... well, sort of epic really. Granted that Sengoku is literally an epic tale, I still figured the cute girls thing would keep it light. And while there was a certain amount of expected charming silliness and fanservice, mostly it was surprisingly dramatic and engaging. And the addition of a character who already knew the entire history and was determined to stop this Oda from making the same mistakes the other did led to some intriguing changes in the story. All in all, it was just very pleasant and enjoyable.

Then after bouncing around a bit more, I ended up diving into a series I'd been idly threatening to watch for a few years - Shinsekai Yori aka From the New World. I got a copy of the first volume of the LN years ago and have bounced off of it half a dozen times or so, so I figured I'd give the anime a chance. And even the anime takes a bit to get going, but once it hit its stride, it just sucked me in. It's very good, and with impressive art design and music, in addition to the expected good story. I've watched 21 episodes in just two days, and will certainly watch the last four episodes later today.

New season is getting going. Here is where I stand right now:

• 100 Girlfriends - I watched the finale and it was great. Season 2 managed to deliver just as much as season 1 did.
• Apothecary Diaries - Cour 2 has started and lots more mysteries being foreshadowed.
• Too-Perfect Saint - No surprises in the first episode, but they managed to make their obviously limited budget work effectively.
• Rock is a Lady's Modesty - Really fun episode to start with. I am really looking forward to more of this series.
• Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire - First three episodes are out and it has been...alright. I don't really know what to make of this series yet. Unfortunately, I am going to have to wait a couple weeks before the next episode comes out.

Currently re-watching Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid season 2 (I probably watch the whole series once per year since it was launched); Recently finished re-watching the holy Gundam trilogy (Mobile Suit Gundam, Z and ZZ); Getting ready to re-watch SDF Macross and Macross: DYRL; Waiting impatiently for the next season of Spy x Family; Happy to have discovered Natsume's Book of Friends.

Needless to say, all of the above are must watch.