Board 8 > Anime and Manga Topic 201:Disappointment is like the wind, always by my side

(+) Yeah! (+)

Beyond sold less than half as much as the first season, heh.

http://www.someanithing.com/series-data-quick-view if you want to see average per volume, which is a more useful number. You can sort by year or by total and then ctrl f year or whatever.
---

who would have thought even otaku would stop paying the ridiculous BD tax
---

Finished more airing anime, again from worst to best.

Angolmois was kind of bad. An anime like this either needs to have spectacle or a legit strategic/historical element, and this one had neither. The animation was never impressive, so when dudes started pulling off Dynasty Warriors impossible moves it just looked stupid rather than impressive. I'm honestly not sure what the point of this anime even was, it was like it didn't know what it wanted to be. I mentioned it before but if you want a far better piece of media about exiles fighting Mongols, watch the Korean movie 'Musa'. Angolmois was junk by comparison, only earning a 3/10 from me.

Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits was surprisingly decent! I don't think it was the greatest thing ever that everyone should watch, but I enjoyed having weekly episodes in a fantastical setting, and watching Aoi bond people through food while finding her place. Not much else to say really, this was a consistently above average anime, which I rank at a respectable 6/10.

Asobi Asobase was the best comedy of the season! It doesn't stack up nearly as well compared to the rest of the year, falling well behind Hinamatsuri for me, but this was still a funny anime. At times it got a bit too absurd for my tastes, but the three characters were all great in their own ways and seeing them interact over pastimes was always enjoyable. Hanako was my favorite and Maeda was a solid supporting character. There were times when whole skits fell flat, but there were still an impressive number of winners given how many there were. I rank this just above Chio's School Road, also earning a 7/10.
---

Nice of Japan to finally join the modern world.
---

No simulcast announcement for Index season 3 yet.

Is it going to be the sacrificial lamb?

...Release the Spyce also not official yet.
---

Funimation should have Index. Im pretty sure theyre the ones who own the first two seasons anyways unless they let it expire. I feel like Hulu or Crunchy have the first two seasons too, but I could be wrong

The story is set in Onomichi, Hiroshima in the year 20XX. Fish disappear from the sea around the world and only whales live in the ocean. The Ministry of Fishery decides to set up giant experimental Universe Fish Tanks in space. The Onomichi Universe Fishery Union is established and begins to train space fishermen. Female fishermen are in demand due to the strengthening of an equal employment law for men and women. Six new female space fishermen are selected, and the story centers on supporting their growth.
---

Thats the one I said will be a surprise hit

Looks like generic Moe from the PV sadly
---

I'm done Monogatari Second Season now, having finished Hitagi End. I feel like I still need to think about it more to fully wrap my head around the character arcs (and what lies Kaiki might've slipped into the narrative) but my initial impressions are definitely positive! While it didn't become my favorite arc, it was consistently interesting and handled the plot well.

I wasn't sold on him after Nisemonogatari, but having Kaiki as the POV character was great. I liked how the little details in his narration and interactions expanded the setting. This is a strength of Monogatari overall, but in this arc especially the world felt a lot bigger than the specific story I was witnessing. Like, there's a cohesive setting with other stories happening just off-screen, only subtly referenced. Something big seems to be brewing with Gaen and/or Ougi.

Anyway, the plot here was great too. I wasn't the biggest fan of Nadeko Medusa, but now that the situation was set up it was interesting seeing how various characters handled it. Senjougahara spent a whole episode wearing novelty glasses while begging Kaiki for help, and he agreed despite his supposedly selfish nature. From there he was basically a private detective gathering information, all while having interesting interactions with Senjougahara, Nadeko, and even best girl Hanekawa. The manga artist resolution for Nadeko kind of came out of nowhere, but that was also the point, how there was more to her than anyone (even she) had realized. I liked it.

Now I just hope Araragi actually listens and stays away from her. I'm halfway expecting him to rush up and start groping her the next time he sees her, ruining everything. Man, having Hanekawa as a narrator earlier this season and Kaiki as the narrator in this arc (with both easily being my favorite arcs so far, except maybe for the Kizu movies) kind of made me realize that I'm enjoying Monogatari in spite of Araragi. There are moments where his self-sacrificing nature towards helping people is at the forefront, leading to interesting dilemmas, and at those times he's alright. His bit at the end of this arc was on point. I think I've realized that I don't like much else about his character, though. Why couldn't Kaiki become the main character instead of dying at the end? At least that wayward snake from the first Nadeko arc finally got some resolution! That was some nice payoff from such subtle set-up.

Anyway, Monogatari Second Season was very good overall. Next up: Hanamonogatari, which is five episodes put together into a single two hour video for some reason.
---

Kaiki the best
---

Bloom Into You goes to HiDive.
---

Booooo

Suck it up and pay the 3 bucks IMHO.
---

Encouragement of Climb S3 beated. Not as good as S2, unfortunately. Not enough emotional content, and too much non-mountain climbing stuff (plus the mountain climbing wasn't quite as powerful as it was earlier, maybe since they're more used to it?). The OVA to start the season was awesome though (Kokona rulz) and it was still good overall. I liked the drama stuff too, though I know some people weren't fans.

Summer Rankz Updated:

1. Asobi Asobase
2. Encouragement of Climb S3
3. Chio's School Road
4. Harukana Receive
---

https://twitter.com/thatguyCD/status/1044723181783863297?s=20
---

Looks like Crunchy just dumped Flash. HTML5.
---

LapisLazuli posted...

Looks like Crunchy just dumped Flash.

Should've done it years ago, but about fucking time either way.

I'm bored at work so here are some mid-series Monogatari arc rankings.

Tsubasa Tiger > Kizumonogatari > Tsubasa Family > Hitagi End > Tsubasa Cat > Mayoi Jiangshi > Shinobu Time > Mayoi Snail > Suruga Monkey > Hitagi Crab > Nadeko Medusa > Nadeko Snake >>> Karen Bee > Tsukihi Phoenix

Anything above Cat is the top tier, and anything above Snake was varying degrees of good. The two Nadekos were alright. Bottom two were kind of bad imho.
---

I am here at the theater for ANIME

this is becoming a regular occurrence what a time to be alive
---

I give that a solid 8.5 out of 10

Quite a few people in theater clapping at the end of the final fight
---

Oh yeah there was like a 4 year old kid in the theater who is totally not reading the subtitles but loudly shouted YAAAAAYYYYYY at the end of the fight
---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfL7T8FirGs" data-time="
---

Mobilezoid posted...

Nadeko Snake >

yikes

I guess Roba just can't handle wincest

interesting that he would put Neko Black so high though...
---

Land of the Lustrous preorders are up. Steelbook.

https://shop.sentaifilmworks.com/collections/pre-order/products/land-of-the-lustrous-complete-collection
---

Just realized there's been no Re:Creators release yet, which I would also pick up. It, Made in Abyss and Antarcrica, though those latter 2 are recent. Also Crybaby....except for the unfortunate price.

Took Re:Zero 2 years, so who knows.
---

I didn't have time to post about it while at home but I finished Hanamonogatari (aka Suruga Devil). While it didn't manage to reach the level of my favorites, I still enjoyed it quite a bit.

Kanbaru isn't my favorite character, but I do like her so having her in the lead was nice. I thought her story here was really compelling, with her feeling lost without her friends and still unable to play basketball. She's at her worst when she's enabling Araragi's perverse side so it was nice that he wasn't around much, too. Of course he had to show up at the end for some unfunny incest jokes, but oh well. At least their conversation in the car was nice.

I also liked Rouka quite a bit. Her full story after the suicide revelation really got to me. She also played well off of Kanbaru so I'm sad that she's gone now. Then again it turned out Kaiki didn't actually die (yay, Kaiki!) so maybe Rouka will return.

I also want to say, this arc was really visually impressive. Kizumonogatari's animation was an awesome sneak peek at what I assume will be the series at its best, so it's been fun watching the show slowly improve towards that peak. They nailed the almost dreamlike quality of the aesthetic, especially near the end when the gymnasium flooded with water and the roof opened up.
---

Monogatari's animation peak has passed, sadly. Most of what comes after looks worse than Hana.

Also Kizu took like 7 years to animate, so it looks much better than everything else :p

Honestly I thought Nise had the best animation of the TV series.
---

At one point I was gonna watch the Suruga arc since I liked her, but I never did because I realized I wouldnt be watching more of the series and watching just that for one character would be dumb

Mac Arrowny posted...

Monogatari's animation peak has passed, sadly. Most of what comes after looks worse than Hana.

Aw, that's too bad. Hopefully it isn't much worse.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Honestly I thought Nise had the best animation of the TV series.

It had some impressive moments (though, every season has) but I don't remember thinking it was much better than Bake. Maybe my impression was skewed since I watched it right after Kizu.
---

Bake has more cool stylistic stuff, while Nise has more high frame rate stuff.
---

MHA S3 marathon so close now. Think another day or two left to wait

I mean unless you plan on watching it all in one go what's the harm of starting it now
---

two days, last episode is out Saturday night Japan time.
---

Dayum, the OP for the Kabaneri game.

https://twitter.com/GiggukAZ/status/1045506515128311808?s=19
---

An Attack on Trains game? What?

I can probably start tomorrow after I finish Chio and Cells

yay praise be to Two Heroes doing so well in America that there were added showings and I got a ticket for Saturday
---

DMM doing Kabeneri game -_-

Also the first ep of Kabeneri had some insanely good animation. There was great animation throughout, honestly.
---

Hinomaru Zumou (Cover, Lead CP)
Kimetsu no Yaiba
One Piece
Act-Age (CP)
Yakusoku no Neverland
Jujutsu Kaisen
Mist no Kaibou-roku (CP, Golden Future Cup Entry #5)
Boku no Hero Academia
Black Clover (CP)
Boku-tachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai
HunterHunter
Shishunki Renaissance! David-kun
Dr. Stone
Haikyuu!!
Yuragi-sou no Yuuna-san
Shokugeki no Souma
Alice to Taiyou
Tanaka Seiji
Jimoto ga Japan

- Dr. Stone having one of its first sub-10 placements in many moons
- Act-Age has really stabilized. I'm not sure it's that good yet, but it's interesting at least!
---

Oh so this is now the Cell arc in One Piece.

Ok I'm hyped
---

One Piece is now Samurai Jack
---

although they were hinting at this back in Zou when Momo said he met Roger
---

I've finished Tsukimonogatari (aka Yotsugi Doll). I liked what I'd seen of Ononoki earlier so I was looking forward to this arc. Sadly, for a variety of reasons, I didn't like it very much. It didn't quite reach the badness of Nisemonogatari but I'd probably rank it right below Nadeko Snake.

Even leaving aside my issues the incest vibes... spending a quarter of the arc on a pointless bath with Tsukihi where they don't talk about anything interesting and there isn't even any decent fanservice? That's just boring. Really, this whole arc was boring. Kagenui is boring (if you need a specialist, bring back Kaiki). My interest was finally piqued when the 'villain' was described as a doll-master because I imagined him summoning things. That could have been neat. Instead he was just a pawn for (probably) Ougi and didn't do anything. There was also a double-whammy of anime tropes that bother me. Araragi was 100% adamant that Ononoki shouldn't kill because killing is wrong (even when there's a justifiable reason for it)! Then when she killed him anyway he just kind of lazily forgives her. Add in Araragi being annoying with that extended Ononoki skirt-flip scene and there really wasn't much for me to enjoy.

I will say that there was one thing I liked. I'm glad there's finally some consequences to Araragi's vampire powers. I watched Re:Zero not long ago and appreciated how the main character's pain carried a massive psychological cost, so it was always kind of lame for Araragi to be speaking calmly after being swung around by his intestines or getting torn in half. If he has to treat his powers more warily from now on, then at least one good thing came out of this arc.
---

Sentai picked up Release the Spyce, so that's safe from Netflix. Probably gonna be HiDive.
---

Please no I want to watch my ninja girls.

LapisLazuli posted...

Suck it up and pay the 3 bucks IMHO.

---

Planet With beated. This was a pretty mixed experience. There are definitely a few great things about it, but also a bunch of massive flaws. The story flow is excellent. Every episode progresses things well, and the overall story is probably the best part of the show. There are cool plot twists and the world-building is great. The cast is generally quite good as well. They're almost all interesting and mostly quite unique, and when the show spends time with them it's generally very good. The show did a pretty good job with its themes too (I especially like its pro-vegetarian and anti-gun message), which you don't usually see from stuff like this. The writing is all excellent, as expected from Mizukami.

I think the flaws are more due to the anime structure than anything else. The show has way too many characters for a 12 episode series. A bunch of them seem interesting but don't get nearly enough development. At least two or three of them really should've been cut. Ginko should've had a lot more screentime to make her moments later on more powerful. The school stuff is kinda bad in general (as is a bunch of the comedy), though maybe that could've been better with a longer episode count too. Soya's a pretty interesting MC at first, with a strong flaw, but that basically goes away later on and he gets much more boring.

The other big flaw is that the action is terrible. The mech battles are all super ugly and none of them are interesting in the slightest. Thankfully a lot of the episodes have the battles be more mental than physical, but this gets especially bad later on in the show. I hated the battles in the last few episodes. Too bad this didn't have the kind of animation the first half of Franxx did (or even the second half, which still looked much better than anything in Planet With).

Episode 8 was the best one I think. The flashback was awesome, and the present day conflict was quite interesting too. Felt like everything had the right amount of time to breathe. It's too bad that a show that nailed all the fundamentals so well failed to be truly amazing because of technical reasons.

1. Asobi Asobase
2. Encouragement of Climb S3
3. Planet With
4. Chio's School Road
5. Harukana Receive
---

Robazoid posted...

I've finished Tsukimonogatari (aka Yotsugi Doll). I liked what I'd seen of Ononoki earlier so I was looking forward to this arc. Sadly, for a variety of reasons, I didn't like it very much. It didn't quite reach the badness of Nisemonogatari but I'd probably rank it right below Nadeko Snake.

Even leaving aside my issues the incest vibes... spending a quarter of the arc on a pointless bath with Tsukihi where they don't talk about anything interesting and there isn't even any decent fanservice? That's just boring. Really, this whole arc was boring. Kagenui is boring (if you need a specialist, bring back Kaiki). My interest was finally piqued when the 'villain' was described as a doll-master because I imagined him summoning things. That could have been neat. Instead he was just a pawn for (probably) Ougi and didn't do anything. There was also a double-whammy of anime tropes that bother me. Araragi was 100% adamant that Ononoki shouldn't kill because killing is wrong (even when there's a justifiable reason for it)! Then when she killed him anyway he just kind of lazily forgives her. Add in Araragi being annoying with that extended Ononoki skirt-flip scene and there really wasn't much for me to enjoy.

I will say that there was one thing I liked. I'm glad there's finally some consequences to Araragi's vampire powers. I watched Re:Zero not long ago and appreciated how the main character's pain carried a massive psychological cost, so it was always kind of lame for Araragi to be speaking calmly after being swung around by his intestines or getting torn in half. If he has to treat his powers more warily from now on, then at least one good thing came out of this arc.

Valentine choco scene is best part, Koyokoyo
---

BK_Sheikah00 posted...

Valentine choco scene is best part, Koyokoyo

---