My heart is shining!

Holy cow, this week’s episode of Sunshine was actually good! It felt like the Love Live I fell in love with. Let’s break it down, famalam.

First off, there was actual buildup to the song. We got that in the form of last week’s less-than-impressive episode. We had reason to believe that they were able to perform it, which is one heck of a step up from the first season!

Second off, the song was actually situated in-universe. The anime went, “okay, they’re gonna perform now,” and then they did. In season one, most of the insert songs just kinda happened randomly, with no context. We had no reason to assume that they were actually occurring in-universe, so it was hard to care about them.

Third off, the song’s lyrics actually connected to what was going on in the anime at the time, reflecting Aqours’s dilemma and how they solved it. This is the big one, really. The reason it felt so much like classic Love Live. The only other time this happened in Sunshine was with Omoi yo Hitotsu ni Nare. Granted, they could’ve done this better. For instance, I think we should’ve been privy to Chika’s plan before we got the song. But gosh dang it, they did it.

Also, using Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru Kai for the open house was a very odd move, but I see exactly why they went with it. Why is that? Because for the first time, Aqours has begun to shine. This is Love Live. This is how you move people’s hearts. What Muse achieved in episode three of their first season, Aqours has finally managed to achieve in episode three of their second season. Yes, Sunshine, my heart is shining - just like yours has started to. Of course, you’re not even close to being Muse’s equal, but you’ve finally taken a step in the right direction.

I was very pleased by this episode, as it just might be the case that Sunshine has learned what it was doing wrong. They still have plenty of chances to screw up again, but this is at least better than anything we got last season. Keep this up, and you might actually come out leaving a net positive impression on me.

MY mai TONIGHT! (DANCING TONIGHT)

So I recently finished watching Hina Logi.

And yup, sure enough, it sucked.

Okay, I play the card game (by which I mean I bought the trial decks), and I can confirm that this anime had no reason to exist. They were clearly just trying to advertise for the game. It was an act of desperation, since even in Akihabara, I couldn’t find anyone who cared about it. The only other players I found were also newbies.

So how do you advertise your card game? By making it incredibly impossible to tell that the source material is a card game. We gots us another SOL CGDCT BBQ anime here, ladies and germs! One that doesn’t really do anything original. None of the characters really develop in any unique way, nor is any of the comedy new or... well, funny.

Wait. Before I launch too deeply into the bad stuff this anime did, I at least want to make it clear that it did two good things. The first was Lion’s outfit when she Trances with Rosa. That was really cute. Like, I’m more of a Nina guy in the card game, but come on. Warawa!Lion is so cuuuuute! I want her to whip me. The second was Yayoi. Her entire character. She was the best thing about this anime, despite being an ojou-sama. Nay, I assert that she is how to do an ojou-sama character right. Rather than assaulting the viewer with obnoxious cackling (LOOKING AT YOU, TO LOVE-RU), she carries herself with an air of elegance while reading social cues and displaying care for her friends. Also, she’s adorable. Also, her Trance outfits (especially with Qipao) are adorable. Also, she’s perfect.

Okay, that’s enough positivity. Let’s get into why this anime is garbage.

As if the genuinely ear-bleeding OP and ED (and their unoriginal lyrics, apart from their L&L flavoring) weren’t enough, this anime didn’t have the decency to give us any interesting characters. Every single one can be described in just a handful of words. Lion? The infuriatingly energetic ditz. Nina? The quiet girl who learns to open up. Yayoi? Ojou-sama, correctly though she may be executed. Yuuko? Ara ara. Mahiro? Tomboy, complete with -ssu. I could go on, but I think you get my point. Now, you might argue that Lion’s dad was unique. And while the doting father character isn’t commonly done, it turns out there’s a reason for that. It’s annoying. He was a waste of screentime, his voice was obnoxious, and nothing he did made sense. Like, he launched a missile at a foreign country’s school and experienced no repercussions? Why? How? Oh, and then there’s the principal, or whatever. All she did was speak in riddles that never made sense, though those scenes were shot with the kind of gravitas that tries to make you think they do. Just because something is cryptic, that doesn’t mean it’s profound! No scene that contained her left me thinking anything other than, “So what was the point of this scene?”

The A story of this anime was very clearly centered around Nina’s development, but it never really ended up being interesting. It was just the same as any loner character’s development. Heck, didn’t My Little Pony do this? It’s been years and years since my brony phase, but I’m fairly certain this character arc was lifted straight from Twilight Sparkle in season one. At least that cartoon had an interesting setting and good music.

Another thing the anime dropped the ball on would be its inclusion of Trancing. Yeah, I get it. It’s a fundamental aspect of your world’s lore. It’s the cornerstone of your precious card game. But it’s kinda underwhelming to make your characters into magical girls and have them do nothing but spar against each other every once in a while. Let’s see them engage a hostile Foreigner, or something! I’m assuming that’s what the first Luck and Logic anime was about - I haven’t seen it - but again, this is the fundamental premise of your IP. Bring it to the forefront. Heck, you can even keep the SOL-ness. Just give us a reason to care about their fighting prowess! Justify your inclusion of magical girls! And no, I don’t consider the girls’ rivalry to be sufficient justification. Their shoving in of this element regardless of its meaninglessness is what made me realize this series was meant as nothing more than a desperate advertisement. That, and the excuse to reuse transformation scenes gave them an easy out when they needed to save budget or find ways to fill an episode.

Okay, now it’s time for the elephant in the room: the fan service.

This anime made several half-hearted attempts to sexualize its characters. Its characters who are first-year middle school students, which puts them safely in the category of “too young.” Once you get younger than about the third year of middle school (since Kuroyukihime didn’t trip the creep alarms), fan service stops being sexy and starts being off-putting - usually.

If you really want to sexualize young characters... well, setting aside how I feel about that decision, I do believe there’s a way to do it without creeping your viewers out (or at least, without creeping them out too much). As an example, I direct you to Prisma Illya. Prilya is an anime that will put any of its viewers on about a dozen watch lists, but for good reason: it successfully portrayed elementary school characters as sexy.

Wait. Hear me out.

Prilya succeeded at this because it knew it was ridiculous. It knew the very notion of sexualizing elementary school girls was downright insane. So it used over-the-top methods as a tongue-in-cheek way of acknowledging this. Notice the unbelievably lust-filled actions taken by Kuro at just about any point in the series. Notice how she cranks situations from zero to eleven in the blink of an eye. Notice the dramatic cinematography and art direction in these scenes. Notice Illya and Miyu’s over-the-top reactions that kick in instantaneously. Heck, the fan service scenes were more funny than arousing. Done incorrectly, the viewer would have grimaced at the show and said, “You’re going to hell.” However, Prilya’s sheer audacity and willingness to poke fun at itself (coupled with its genuinely interesting story, but that’s a different post) resulted in the viewer laughing and saying, “We’re going to hell.”

However, the majority of Hina Logi’s fan service took itself seriously (or at least, as seriously as fan service can take itself), like Strike Witches did. And that just doesn’t work when your characters are that young. To its credit, the Valentine’s segment in the penultimate episode had fan service that, while cliche and unoriginal, was at least a step in the right direction. That Mahiro/Yayoi scene was the only fan service moment in the anime that actually held my attention and didn’t make me roll my eyes. What I’m trying to say is, I know what doujinshi I’m looking for the next time I go to Japan.

My final rating for Hina Logi ~from Luck & Logic~ is a four out of ten.

Nobody liked the first L&L anime, and I’ll be surprised if anyone likes this one. Yayoi was indeed a miracle of the universe, and Lion had her moments. But other than that, this anime swings and misses on almost every level. It’s aggressively mediocre. Ordinarily, that’d result in a five out of ten, but its stubborn refusal to explore the few elements that did stand out left the sour taste of resentment in my mouth.

I’ve actually watched a lot of series recently that I just haven’t written about because I never really made the time for it. Stuff like Guilty Crown, Canaan, Nanoha (okay, that was months ago, but I still haven’t written about it), Strike Witches, Grisaia, you know. If there’s anyone who wants to hear what I think about any of those, drop me an ask.

Actually, first, maybe I should ask if anyone even reads this stuff at all. Eh, who cares. Even if nobody does, I’ll keep writing these dang walls of text anyway.

So I just finished watching Little Busters.

When I entered middle school, I joined my local Boy Scout troop.

At the time, it was a small, close-knit group of kids, ranging from my age to about-to-graduate-high-school age. It was so small, in fact, that they reorganized it just a few short months after I joined. It was split into two patrols (i.e. subunits), and I was put in charge of one of them. So it was that I founded the Thunderstorm Patrol.

My friend, whom I’d recruited into the troop, helped me make the flag. It came out really great, and we flew it proudly at troop meetings and campouts. The members of the Thunderstorm Patrol did everything together. We participated in the games at camporees, we took classes at summer camp, we did service projects, we walked around neighborhoods trying to sell people our popcorn. We even earned the National Honor Patrol award multiple times over.

This one time, my friend and I took the same archery class at summer camp. He was really, really good at it, so he challenged the instructor to a match. And guess what? It was close, but my friend won. To celebrate, we went to the scout store and bought Yoohoos - which we referred to as “Holy Grails” because of how dang hot it was. We had a lot of inside jokes like that - Jiminy the Cockroach, Jedediah, ThorGuard - just the mention of any of these things is enough to make me laugh.

I looked up to the older boys in the troop quite a bit, and it was certainly sad to see them go their separate ways after graduating high school. But if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. They made me strong. And not just the older boys, but the younger ones, too. I’ve learned a great many things from my time in the troop and my time leading the Thunderstorm Patrol.

And when it came time for me to leave and go to college? You bet I was sad. But you know what? Even though the troop has lots of new members now - so many that the unfamiliar faces outnumber the familiar ones - and even though we’ve all moved on to the next stages of our lives, the Thunderstorm Patrol still exists. It exists in our hearts. (Well, and in real life - it just has a different leader now.) Its flag still waves proudly somewhere out there. Those precious, character-building times may be over, but they aren’t gone.

My final rating for Little Busters! is a nine out of ten.

Muscles, yay yay!

So I just got back from seeing the final part of WaSuYu in theaters.

I miscalculated how long it would take to get there, so I was almost too late. I sprinted through the train stations and Nihonbashi, and I made it into the screen with mere seconds to spare. No, seriously.

Yuuki Yuuna proves that even ripoffs can be good. At first glance, this looks like a dark magical girl show trying to piggyback off Madoka’s popularity, but it is actually interesting in its own right. The OP is very nice, fitting the tone of the show perfectly, and I liked the subtle changes in it as the anime went on. Additionally, the animation was decent, and the production quality in general was nothing to complain about.

Now for the story. While Madoka slowly built up to multiple large, shocking moments, YuYuYu went for a constant, slow burn. And I think it worked. We were given plenty of time to see the camaraderie in the Hero Club and grow to care about them - notice how one episode was devoted entirely to making friends with Karin. The shocking moment happened halfway through, meaning we got a LONG time to watch the girls deal with their new situation. A lot of ordinary, everyday scenes helped us appreciate the burdens they had to be put through because of their duty. Yes, the dark aspect to the magical girl system isn’t as dark as Madoka’s, but I still felt for these characters because I saw how their lives, once happy and peaceful (which we saw!), were being derailed by the Taisha’s whims. It’s why, despite how little characterization Karin got, I felt utter despair when I saw her reckless insanity in episode eleven. The manner in which this was all carried out greatly impressed me, creating a far better anime than I was expecting. Also, props to the anime for being so detailed in its lore, like having a reason why Tougou had three fairies instead of one.

That said, it’s not without its flaws. For example, Yuuna was easily the most boring and least developed character, despite being in the series’s title. Plus, the talking-down of the... antagonist, I guess - in the final episode seemed pretty rushed, since they clearly wanted to just get to the aftermath already. And that final scene was unnecessary. The anime would’ve been much better if it hadn’t happened, leaving us on a downer that could lead into season two - perhaps with some characterization of Yuuna through flashback. But they had to have their happy ending. If it had been any character besides Yuuna, it would’ve been more powerful, but it had to be her because she was in the title. So characterize her more, dang it! I shouldn’t be thinking, “Well, at least Itsuki’s okay” when I see that scene! Freaking Itsuki, the girl who’d be a literal nobody in any other magical girl anime! That said, though, Tougou was best girl.

And now for WaSuYu.

What the heck happened here? This is way worse than the main series. Not only was there an unforgivable amount of CGI - which, by the way, looks positively hideous on a movie theater’s screen - but they didn’t even really bring anything new to the table. It was just a rehash of what Nogi told us in the main series, with nothing shocking happening. Even the final battle was pretty understated, and clearly a product of diminishing runtime (which they could’ve gotten if they had eliminated all the useless segments from the second part). I expected them to Bloom in one battle, win, and then have the next battle be the final one. That way, they’d have time for the fear to set in, like with the Hero Club. But no, they had to rush through it all in one go. Heck, the battle wasn’t even led into very well. It could’ve used several more seconds of silence to drive the point home, but they had to have that dang ringtone blaring and breaking the mood. And then they tried to forcibly increase the tension by dropping death flags over and over. Heck, Nogi’s rampage was even cut short! That final battle should’ve made up the entire third part. But hey, they just couldn’t bear to cut out Wasshi’s CGI exercise song. That was indispensable.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the transformation sequences were perving over the bodies of elementary school girls. What is this, Nanoha? Even the Hero Club didn’t get perved over during the transformation sequences, and they’re in middle school. Plus, we had to have a transformation sequence every time in WaSuYu, while YuYuYu just did it once. Were they really that desperate to fill runtime? Could they not think of better things to do, like executing the final battle well? Or did they just not have any budget? That would be pretty easy to believe, considering all the butt-ugly CGI and the painfully obvious stock sound effects.

All that said, though, there were moments that impressed me, the chief one being how they handled the... the aftermath of the end of part two, so as to avoid spoilers. The BGM, the pacing, the camera angles, the animation, the choice of scenes - it was all spot-on, creating an emotional punch that I honestly didn’t expect to receive from the anime that gave us a CGI exercise song about furuki yoki Nippon. The aftermath of those scenes was done well, too, giving the audience a mental break from the gut-punch they just had to sit through. It didn’t end prematurely, and it didn’t overstay its welcome. Though they could’ve led into that final battle better. Heck, if this had been four parts instead of three, adding in another battle before the last one, this would’ve been incredible, despite its low production values. And, of course, they would’ve had to give us something to think about in the final scenes, instead of just copy-pasting scenes from YuYuYu.

YuYuYu has plenty of flaws, but it excels at what it tries to do. It’s not as good as Madoka, but I’m glad I watched it. Just don’t expect much out of WaSuYu.

My final rating for Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero is a six out of ten.

Botamochi.

So last night was the final episode of Eromanga-sensei.

It was like Oreimo, but worse.

First off, let me state for the record that this anime is absolute gutter trash. Not only is it cliche, but it tries to have its cake and masturbate into it at the same time. It takes great pains in making fun of common LN tropes, but then shamelessly utilizes them itself - playing them straight.

So why am I not tearing this thing to pieces?

Well, there are two reasons: Matsuoka and Elf. Good ol’ Kirito voiced our main character, and this anime awakened me to the fact that Matsuoka is a national treasure. His “goofy voice” is perfect, and the silly noises he makes never fail to make me laugh. Despite his bombastic Kirito-ness, he was the best possible VA they could’ve gotten for Masamune, especially since the character really doesn’t have anything going for him.

Elf, while admittedly a one-dimensional archetype character, also made this anime interesting. The scene in the first arc where her work ethic clashes with Masamune’s was genuinely fascinating, as you can’t really say either of them was wrong. In fact, this series is at its best when it philosophizes about the relationship between LN authors, readers, and the LN itself. It provides insight into how LN authors see things. I wish they’d included more of these scenes - I remember for a fact that there was one in the third book that they cut out.

Which brings me to a major problem this anime had: pacing. They pretty much finished the first three books in ten episodes. Book four is too long to do in two episodes, though its halfway point would actually make for a better season ender since Fushimi doesn’t know how to write a full story arc. But instead of just doing that, they decided to shoot themselves in the foot by slapping content from all over the series into the final episodes. Let’s have the flashback scenes from book eight, even though it’s vital that they not get revealed until then! Let’s have the doujinshi scene from book six (or whenever it was), even though the anime hasn’t shown that Sagiri is well enough to go downstairs when someone is at the door! (And besides, in the book, that interaction took place in the hallway in front of her room, anyway.) Oh, and let’s have the Twister scene from the end of book three while we’re at it! I mean, don’t get me wrong. The doujinshi scene was brilliant, and I’m glad I got to see it in the anime. But those final two episodes were very clearly a desperate attempt to fill runtime. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Oh, and let’s not forget that Oreimo cameo. Let’s not ever forget that Oreimo cameo. Let’s not ever let Fushimi forget that he somehow thought it was a good idea to remind us of a work that’s far better than this one in the hopes that we’d mistakenly think this one was just as good. Let’s also not ever forget all the product placement that littered this anime, like the SAO books, the Toradora books (which I’ve only ever seen in USED bookstores, not new ones), and all the other series he gave free advertising to. It’s even more egregious in the LNs, which name-drop such things as Shana, FFXV (???), and KanColle at every possible opportunity they get. Heck, book nine has a chapter that’s basically a glorified advertising space, even going so far as to include several (real!) LN series’ cover illustrations within the text.

Just... at least they haven’t announced a second season. Any semblance of a plot is tossed out the window after book four, so they wouldn’t be able to make a coherent story unless they went anime-original.

My final rating for Eromanga-sensei is a five out of ten.

Yeah, there’s a lot to hate about this anime, but I feel like Matsuoka and Elf were perfect enough to pretty much even it out. I’ll continue reading the LNs because Sagiri a cute, but I’m not gonna lose sleep over the fact that this will probably never get a second season. I’ll just leave you with one last statement to really drive home how pathetic this anime was. Really ruminate about this one, because it’s a pretty serious deal:

The manga adaptation of Eromanga-sensei was better than this.

So the final episode of Attack on Titan 2 just aired.

Season three confirmed for next year.

Man, they literally had all the money in the world to make this thing, so why was it so... lackluster?

While the characters’ strikes upon the Titans were still awesome and still had a huge amount of weight to them, there was an unforgivable amount of CG this season, from the horses to the freaking Colossus Titan. Seriously, people? Who thought that was a good idea? This better be fixed for the BDs.

Oh, and the ED was trash. It was garbage. It hurt to listen to! And the OP was catchy, but it was no Guren no Yumiya or Jiyuu no Tsubasa.

The story, though, followed in season one’s footsteps in that it was a marked improvement over the manga. Season two gave us more backstory for Ymir, really solidifying her as a character and making her feel much more alive than she did on paper. I’m worried, though, that they may have tipped their hand a little too far in doing so. Now it shouldn’t be hard for an anime-only to imagine the origin of the Titans, though we manga readers were clueless until they got to the basement. That said, the story was one well-paced and bookended arc - a rarity indeed for anime nowadays. There was no filler, nothing that could’ve been edited out. One straight shot from beginning to end. Well, except for maybe the Sasha thing.

Again, though, the slapdash production really disappointed me. The direction was also bad in some instances (cough cough Colossus falling off the wall), and certain moments that were supposed to be terrifying ended up only being funny. Yeah, I know that that’s kind of AoT’s thing, but you have to balance it. The humorous poses and faces have to illustrate the demented situation, not overshadow it. Sometimes it went a little too far in that regard.

And flipping back to praise again, I would like to commend the anime for making us care about Nanaba and Gelgar in such a small amount of time. Just as with Petra in season one, I was actually affected by their deaths. Oops, spoiler alert. Anyway, the anime also planted Reiner’s conflicting personalities into our minds - something that looks like is about to bear fruit in the manga. I look forward to seeing how that turns out.

My final rating for Attack on Titan Season 2 is a five out of ten.

For every good thing this season did, something bad weighed it down. The story, while solid, wasn’t exciting. The OP was decent, but the ED was bad. The Titan fights were cool, but the Colossus Titan was a CGI abomination. Ultimately, I have no choice but to label this as average.

Now to translate this dang thing...

So last night was the first episode of AoT 2.

And I subbed it!

I didn’t like the OP the first time I heard it, but as I listened to it more, it grew on me. It’s not as good as the OPs in the first season, but it’s still pretty catchy. The ED, though, was pretty bad, especially when you remember what the first season gave us.

Oh, and can someone explain why people are saying this has bad animation? Because it doesn’t. It’s above average. Every hit has so much impact to it thanks to the camera angles used, and a lot of complicated movements are drawn really well. If I had to criticize something, it’d be the CGI horses. They looked terrible, but at least they were only on screen for a split-second.

As for the story... what is there to comment on? The manga has been out for a long time, so I can say we’re in for some interesting developments. And the fact that it’s only one cour long means we probably won’t be getting that one arc that we all hated. My guess is that they’re doing this to make everyone have a good impression of season two so that they sell enough to justify season three. Then that’ll be two cours (or even three) so they can knock out that bad arc first and end on the good stuff again.

Wait. It’s only one cour long?!

So last night was the final episode of Rewrite.

It’s about the most we could’ve expected.

After the disappointing first season, I grew skeptical of the entire story, but I let /a/ convince me to play the VN anyway - and I’m glad I did. The Moon and Terra routes were great, with lots of beautiful moments that I couldn’t wait to see animated.

Except they didn’t really do those moments well.

While I do applaud them for keeping the “choices” in the Terra route, I feel like they made some dumb decisions in how to present the rest of its key elements. For example, the big moment where Kotarou first encounters Kagari: in the VN, you’re actually capable of picking “capture it” or “kill it” (unlike the rest of the route, where you can only pick the right option), and if you do, you’re treated to the route’s bad end, where Kagari fatally wounds Kotarou, Kotori turns him into her familiar, and he spends a decade in a coma, waking up with amnesia. I always thought this was an ingenious way of revealing how all the other routes came to be, but the anime chose instead to just explain it. Tell, not show. So that was disappointing.

Also, is it just me, or was the mercenary segment rushed? It was only one episode long, but I feel like it should’ve been an episode and a half. And I seem to remember the VN making a really big deal about Luis spearing the helicopter, so the way the anime presented it was a little underwhelming.

Oh, then there’s the Terra OP. Yeah, it was good, but here’s the thing: when you do an anime adaptation of the Terra route of Rewrite, the tacit understanding is that THE OP WILL BE REWRITE OF THE LIFE. We only ever got that at the end of the Moon route!

Okay, enough griping about adaptations. Now for my complaint about the story. We know Kotarou’s plan was to end the conflict between Gaia and Guardian, but... what did he actually do? I mean, even during the climax of the series, Guardian was still trying to invade Gaia. What “fond memories” did he create?

While it is a fairly important one, that’s still the only story-related flaw I can think of in this season, which says quite a bit. Moon and Terra are genuinely well-written, and that final scene was adorable in the extreme, so I just can’t stay mad.

My final rating for Rewrite 2nd season is a seven out of ten.

Is it the best thing ever? Of course not. But it’s still perfectly enjoyable and a good conclusion to the series. I get the feeling that if I were to go rewatch the whole series marathon-style, I’d even think the first season was good. They could’ve done this season better, but the way they did it was still great.

And... that’s all for Winter 2017. Next up, we’ve got Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, Eromanga-sensei, Sword Oratoria, and Sukasuka. Spring 2017 is gonna be good.

ALSO OWARIMONOGATARI HYYYYYYYYYPE

So last night was the final episode of Sangatsu.

It felt like it could have been good if it hadn’t been such a stickler to the manga.

Sangatsu no Lion is a critically-acclaimed manga, praised for being a remarkably in-depth and meaningful character study. And yes, that’s what the anime turned out to be - except it wasn’t satisfying.

First, though, I feel like I should compliment Shaft for resisting the urge to go about their usual chicanery. No trippy backgrounds, no crazy head tilts - I wouldn’t have known this was a Shaft anime if someone hadn’t told me. The music, meanwhile, was pretty average. I’ll admit the second OP was nice, but it’s not gonna stick with me like, say, Spice and Wolf’s does. Basically, what I’m saying is, there’s nothing terribly remarkable about the presentation.

As for the story, it suffers from Adaptation Syndrome. The first half of the anime focuses exclusively on Kiriyama, showing the multiple sides to his character through his backstory and his shogi matches. It was pretty good, and I was excited to see him get ready to confront his past by going up against that one guy.

Except he didn’t. He lost before he got the chance. Suddenly, the second half of the anime is all about Shimada, with Kiriyama getting totally neglected on the character development front. They tried to tie it back together in the final episode, but that felt forced and unconvincing. That’s not to say Shimada wasn’t interesting. He was. But he’s not our main character. After how invested I got in Kiriyama during the first cour, it was a let-down for him to suddenly be a side character.

That, and the neighbor family, which seemed to be a permanent fixture judging by the OPs and the first cour, almost never showed up in the second cour. Are they important, or not? Make up your mind.

Of course, I know what the root of the problem is. It’s the manga. Manga aren’t bound by length restrictions - they just go steadily on, a chapter every month, with no breaks. For that reason, you can make story arcs as long as you want, retire and bring back characters whenever you want, and not worry about tying everything in a neat little bow by X point in time. And when you’re trying to do something as intricate as Sangatsu, that becomes a major boon - but screws over the anime adaptation.

My final rating for Sangatsu no Lion is a five out of ten.

Sangatsu was mediocre for the same reason that Souma was. It’s not even really the anime’s fault, but it still didn’t stand out too much. I admire what it was going for, but anime was not a good medium for it. Is the manga good? Probably. It’s probably really good. But this anime? Pass.

Granted, season two is coming this fall, so maybe that’ll be better.

So last night was the final episode of Konosuba 2.

One of the few anime that doesn’t suffer from Season 2 Syndrome.

It is becoming rare indeed for an anime to make me actually burst out in laughter so hard that I tear up. But consarn it, Konosuba has managed to make lightning strike twice. The second season takes everything that made the first season great and enhances it to be even more effective - all while adding more strengths.

I mentioned this in my post about the first episode, but the animation is noticeably improved. However, the art is still wonderfully off-model. This results in an extremely vibrant and expressive style, with super deformations becoming a common occurrence. The visual humor, therefore, gets a zillion times funnier. Want proof? Look no further than the OP. Not only is the song e itself actually good this time, the story told by the animation is beautifully silly. This is how it feels for the entire anime.

Oh, and then there’s the ED. Back when the first season aired last year, its ED got a lot of attention for being one of the comfiest EDs ever, getting favorably compared to the ones from Spice and Wolf. Admittedly, Konosuba 2′s ED isn’t quite as comfy, but it comes pretty darn close. It was a satisfying conclusion to the weekly laugh-fest I had just had the pleasure of watching. The thing holding it back, I’d say, was the tempo. Maybe it would’ve surpassed the first season if it had been a bit slower. But ultimately, that’s a nitpick.

The story picks up right where the first season left off, with Kazuma being put on trial for the crime of treason. The two story arcs featured in this season seem to focus heavily on Darkness and Aqua, with Megumin temporarily taking a backseat. But these stories offered a lot of quality humor, so I ain’t complaining.

Hey, speaking of the humor, let’s talk about that. The first season’s humor tended to poke fun at a lot of RPG and isekai tropes. The second season still does that, but its characters and world have now been established sufficiently enough to allow for its own in-universe jokes, such as the citizens of Arcanretia or the noble who tries to marry Darkness. Oh, but don’t worry - Kazuma still makes his silly quips.

My final rating for Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! 2 is a nine out of ten.

Konosuba 2 is a whirlwind of comedic elements that swirl together to create a nearly perfect synergistic whole. Not a single episode let me go without putting the most childlike and innocent of smiles on my face, and it was overall an incredibly enjoyable experience.

Season three when?

So I recently finished watching K: Return of Kings.

It was... pretty meh.

This anime starts off in the heat of the moment, showing off a situation that clearly has an enormous amount of lore behind it. As cool as that fight scene was, it was kinda underwhelmed by the lack of context. Who are these people? Why are they fighting? This stuff isn’t explained until later.

Actually, for that matter, most of the show’s exposition is fed to the viewer in driblets. You’re left stranded for a few episodes, since nothing gets explained until it’s absolutely vital. In fact, some stuff never really gets explained at all. The Colorless King, for example, never becomes important, and we never really learn who he is or what he’s done.

K holds the viewer at arm’s length, being careful not to be too explicit or straightforward. That’s why the climax felt kinda cheap to me. “It was all a part of keikaku” and “this isn’t my real body” just seemed like cop-outs, as we’d never seen anything to foreshadow these developments. Oh, and Shiro’s plan to destroy the Slate didn’t really seem that impressive. I mean, we didn’t really know the consequences of a Damocles Down. That, and the consequences of destroying the Slate weren’t very earth-shattering, so they had to come up with some random nonsense at the last minute to suddenly make it mean something.

And I really couldn’t tell who the main character was supposed to be. The OP focused on Anna, but the anime focused on Shiro, Munakata, Yata, and Fushimi. It seemed to split its attention evenly between the Clans, preventing any individual one of them from getting any quality development. It was all basic and primitive.

Also, it kept teasing the viewer with backstory that would easily make a better anime than this one - and would actually give the viewer some answers. It was hard to feel for Anna because we didn’t really know anything about Mikoto. It was hard to empathize with Shiro because we hardly knew anything about his past.

Yeah, the fight scenes were cool and all, but this anime tried to build a much bigger world than it had the time for, so it fell flat.

My final rating for K: Return of Kings is a five out of ten.

Granted, I’m probably not the target demographic for this anime. But it just really didn’t stand out much to me one way or the other. There’s not much to say about it, honestly, which is why this post was so dang short.

So last night was the final episode of Koro-Q.

Honestly? It could’ve been better.

Right from the get-go, this anime displayed complete irreverence for its source material, cutting many jokes and mangling many others. Naoto Intilime was reduced to a cameo in the final episode, stricken completely from episode one. The Pope’s game of tag never happened, nor was his all-powerful aura - one of my favorite gags from the manga - mentioned. Granted, the anime did add a few new jokes, like making Karma’s washbasins fall more often or making fun of Asano and his horse, but these were few, far between, and not very funny in the first place. Name one time after episode two when you laughed at Karma’s bug. One time. Go on. I’ll wait.

Additionally, the anime doesn’t know how to use the jokes it  does keep. The Isogai joke is recycled an unbelievable number of times, quickly becoming an eye-roller. Karma’s bug, as I just mentioned, is displayed in exactly the same way every time (except, ironically, when it’s first being explained), with no variation whatsoever. Since a washbasin falling on his head isn’t terribly funny on its own, it got old quick.

Furthermore, a lot of this anime’s humor was derived from “look, we read Assassination Classroom” jokes - Korosensei spoiling Shiro’s true identity, for instance, or the Fuuma Tower stuff. This didn’t really work either, though. The premise of Koro-Q is far enough removed from that of AC that we need something more in order for it to be funny. The only meta joke that I considered decent was the Neuro cameo in episode eleven, solely because of how naked an advertising ploy it was. Sorry, Matsui, but I’m not buying Neuro until I get through my dozens and dozens of piled-up light novels.

Remember how I said the anime cuts a lot of content? That causes some plot holes to surface. For example, the Demon King assassination is ordered by the royal government, and yet the class needs to conceal him from the Big Five, who work for... the royal government? In the manga, they’re paladins of the Carana Church, an international power. But the anime cut this, as it was a somewhat long-winded info dump that had no immediate relevance.

Also, Sugino apparently had two bugs. Look at the Valentine’s episode and then the final episode. In the manga, his bug is the delayed magic.

And then there was something else. What was it again? Oh, right-

Why was every single enemy a freaking Kunudon?!

Seriously! In the manga, they were actually, you know, different! Chapter one had slimes, chapter two had mushrooms, the Ritsu chapter had crabs- but in the anime, everything was a Kunudon. Dungeon crawling is hardly exciting when you know beforehand what you’re going to get. And I’ve played the Neptunia games, so I know what I’m talking about!

The OP was unremarkable, and the ED, a slightly comfy 8-bit rendition of Seishun Satsubatsuron, was almost never used, as most episodes hogged as much screentime as they could.

That brings us to the root of all this disappointment, actually: the format. Ultimately, the half-length format is what killed this anime. Content needed to be cut, rearranged, and even synthesized to squeeze each episode down to twelve minutes. The anime-original jokes were orders of magnitude less funny than the few jokes carried over from the manga, and the pacing became much more plot-focused than it should have been.

My final rating for Korosensei Quest! is a four out of ten.

Ordinarily, I’d give it a three, but I’m being merciful because I feel sorry for it. They clearly wanted to make this anime good, but the format they decided to do it in could only lead to disappointment. Rather than carry over what worked, they decided to try something new - but the approach was misguided.

It didn’t have to be this way. If they had just waited a few years for the manga to reach a good point, they could have made a really good anime. But perhaps they were worried the Assassination Classroom fever would be gone by that point.

Why Eromanga-sensei is going to be the best anime of the Spring 2017 season.

Oh shut up, Attack on Titan isn’t going to be any good this time. It’ll have exactly zero Titans in it for at least half the season.

Eromanga-sensei, for those of you who don’t know, is the next work by the guy behind Oreimo. In this “new sibling romantic comedy,” protagonist Izumi Masamune, a teenage LN author, lives alone with his younger sister, Sagiri, who - unbenownst to Masamune at first - is the illustrator “Eromanga-sensei” who has drawn illustrations for Masamune’s LNs so far.

Masturbatory, much?

The premise is deliciously over-the-top without being too far gone. Plus, the rival character, Yamada Elf-sensei, is wonderfully written. Her ideals and methodologies clash with Masamune’s, but it’s hard to call them wrong, and her multi-faceted personality makes her irresistably cute. She is the Kuroneko to Oreimo’s Kirino.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that this series doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. Masamune is just another generic LN protagonist, Sagiri is just another shy imouto, and Yamada Elf-sensei is just another pompous rival. The story isn’t exactly original, either. So why is this going to be the best anime of Spring 2017?

Because despite being so generic, it inevitably brings that goofy, heartwarming grin to your face at all times. You know the one - the same one you got from Oreimo. The same one you got from Gochiusa, or Non Non Biyori, or Pandora in the Crimson Shell, or K-On, or Azumanga Daioh. This series is proof that cliches can be done well.

Also, the OP will be done by ClariS (Madoka, Oreimo, Nisekoi, one of the Monogataris), and the ED will be done by TrySail (Koyomimonogatari). That alone should be proof enough.

So I just finished watching Accel World: Infinite Burst.

What a steaming pile of beaver feces. And I loved the original series.

You know you’ve done something wrong when the first 38 minutes of your 82-minute movie are a recap of the anime series. Or rather, half of the anime series. Apparently the Incarnate System and Acceleration Research Society weren’t important enough to merit more recap.

However, even that isn’t enough to get viewers up to speed, as this movie features things that the anime never adapted. Why does Raker have her legs back? Who’s Ardor Maiden? Why is Aqua Current with them? Who’s Metatron? You’re just supposed to know. Heck, I’ve only ever read up to the sixth book, so I still don’t know some of this stuff.

Furthermore, the original content was so rushed and - pun very much intended - accelerated that even that felt like a recap. Gaping plot holes were vaulted over nonchalantly, banking on the viewer not noticing them. Certain things just never get explained, like how the antagonist was able to force-disconnect people, or how the acceleration blackout was able to affect the real world.

What little plot this movie had was extremely simplistic, featuring a bombastically uninteresting antagonist that makes efforts not to be remembered by the audience. We don’t even see this person until the last ten minutes or so of the movie.

But Kazoo, you counter, what about what you said for Ordinal Scale? It had plot holes and bland villains, but you still liked that!

Yes, I did, but only because it deemphasized those things and focused heavily on the action. But Infinite Burst tried to balance both. It tried to make you care about the plot - notice how we had few action scenes until the climax. Notice how much talking we got, the characters blathering ad nauseam about plot point X or character trait Y.

And even if it only focused on the action, it still wouldn’t be good. You’d think that with all the budget they saved by copypasting the anime, they’d produce some really awesome fights, right? Wrong. Nothing surpasses TV series-level animation. Plus, it wastes the setup it has. You’ve got all these characters in one place - let’s see them fight together, combine tactics to take down their foes! Don’t just have each one fight individually! Heck, at one point, it gathers six of the Kings together for a group shot, really masturbating all over itself as it builds up to it, but we hardly see them do anything together. In fact, did Yellow Radio even do anything at all after he showed up? I don’t think he did.

The big climax features a deus ex machina, insubstantial philosophizing, and an antagonist whose motives don’t explain anything. In other words, all the worst parts of Durarara, Oregairu, and Love Live Sunshine. The ensuing final strike couldn’t possibly have been more boring, as I simply didn’t care about the villain. The main characters’ views never got challenged. The villain never did anything that related to how the main characters think. Our MCs didn’t grow, change, or even show us a side of themselves we hadn’t seen before. Even in Ordinal Scale, we saw how the game affected the relationship between Kirito and Asuna. All of this movie’s character development moments just reiterate points that were made over and over in the anime.

Fortunately, after the climax is over, the movie wastes very little time on falling action - less than a minute, I think - and finally brings on the (mercifully short) credits. And I’m sorry, but as great as Kotoko and Altima are, they just couldn’t save this movie. It had an aggressively bad plot, an unforgivable amount of recap, bad characters, and appallingly disappointing battles.

My final score for Accel World: Infinite Burst is a two out of ten.

This movie is a failure on almost every level, but it’s more than just that: it’s an insult to everyone who likes the series. Not only can it not decide whether to appeal to newcomers or veterans, but it also presents a slapdash plot and expects people to eat it up. We like Accel World for its characters, we like Accel World for its fights! This movie gave us none of what makes Accel World good and instead ends up souring the viewer’s opinion of the series through its incompetence. This movie was the epitome of laziness.

I reserve scores two and below for works that left me feeling insulted and that have few to no redeeming qualities. Accel World: Infinite Burst definitely fits the bill. It could have been worse - not by much, but still - so I’ll be nice and leave it at a two. But if you’re thinking of seeing this movie, don’t. Not even if you’re a fan. The experience will be painful and unsatisfying.

So I’ve finally gotten all nine endings of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2.

I gotta say, I was expecting more.

Like, the only one they actually put any effort into was the True Ending. The two extra chapters and three extra dungeons really made it feel like an all-out war against the Deity of Sin. Everything was paced nicely, too. Though I really didn’t get Linda’s (because that’s her name - the translation won’t tell you that) motivations at the end. I mean, she was already pretty scared of Magic the Hard, wasn’t she? And I certainly don’t remember her trying to avenge Trick. So why bother doing it for Magic? You could say they just wanted to bring closure to her character arc, but it was never going anywhere in the first place. She was just a Team Rocket character, showing up every other dungeon to save the developers from having to think of new boss fights. I mean, she was funny. She was a nice and entertaining character. But ultimately, she really was just an Underling. She really had no reason to mess with Team Nepgear at the end of the game.

Then the Normal Ending was... well, it would’ve been decent enough if they hadn’t just glossed over the emotional impact of the “we have to sacrifice ourselves” bit. Like, I think it got maybe one or two lines of dialogue. I know it’s just the freaking Normal Ending, but come on. That doesn’t mean you can get away with not trying.

And screw all of you for getting my hopes up for the Conquest Ending. It was garbage. Having the goddesses come to terms with using the sword off-screen was a complete cop-out. Judging by their characters up until that point, we had no reason to expect them to ever consider using the sword, under any circumstances. And considering who Nepgear was up until that point, she got accustomed to killing her friends - oops, spoilers - really easily. Way too easily. Pure-hearted Nepgear the angel should’ve been driven to the brink of insanity! Heck, I thought that’s what they were going for when she killed Underling! ‘Cause when you get down to it, what she was doing wasn’t really any worse than what she did at Gathering Castle in Chapter 5. And when you think of the history between them up until that point, killing her seemed like an extremely drastic move. I thought that scene was set-up for Nepgear to go completely off her rocker! Especially with the “I should’ve done that a long time ago” thing! I was totally expecting the Deity of Sin’s dying words to be something like, “I am slain, but I can die satisfied, for this world will be destroyed by someone far more qualified than me.” And then Nepgear would go insane and kill everything. That would’ve been a cool ending! But no, we need a nebulous “stagnating society” thing that was only thrown in there so the developers could say it wasn’t quite a good ending. If you really want to end the Conquest Ending with Nepgear sane, then have all her friends abandon her. Make her fight the Deity of Sin alone, and then rule Gamindustri all by herself. Maybe have her kill the Oracles or something, I dunno. Then you can have an “I did it, but at what cost?” deal. Like... come on. It would’ve been so easy to make the Conquest Ending actually, you know, sad. Go dark!

The Holy Sword Ending was the last one I went for, and I actually was hopeful about it. I thought it’d, you know, have its own unique writing. Too bad it was little more than a psyche-out from the Conquest Ending into a highlight reel of the True Ending. But hey, at least I got Nepgear’s best sword and processors.

Like... it astounds me how IF and CH put just the bare minimum of effort into writing the game’s endings, compared to the fairly good quality of the main game. I mean, I probably will get the third game sooner or later, but it’s just frustrating how lazy and complacent these developers can be at times.

And don’t even get me started about the translation again.

So I just got back from seeing SAO: Ordinal Scale.

It's no secret by now that the SAO anime series was basically lackluster at best, combining lazy writing with shallow characters and only getting so much attention because of its brilliant character designs and astronomical production values. Ordinal Scale, though, was surprisingly good. Why? Because for the first time, SAO became action-centric, rather than plot- or character-centric. The TV anime focused heavily on its characters. The climax of the Aincrad arc was not Kirito beating the game (spoilers, I guess), but his last scene with Asuna. The Fairy Dance arc focused on its plot, and the Phantom Bullet and Mother's Rosario arcs were basically character studies. Since these things were written poorly, these arcs were poor as a result. By the time Alicization came around, Kawahara learned how to write a good plot, and SAO Progressive marked his transition into writing good characters. It's an absolute joy to read about Kirito and Eugeo's exploits in Underworld, compared to the tedium of his harem in Aincrad. By comparison, Ordinal Scale's plot is extremely simple and straightforward, largely serving as an excuse to serve up action scenes. It centers around a consumer-grade AR device called the Augma, presumably a precursor to Accel World's Neurolinkers (in more ways than one, as is eventually revealed). The conflict in the plot comes from the titular Ordinal Scale, an ARMMO for it. Think "Pokemon Go meets Aincrad," and you're in the right ballpark. Trouble befalls SAO survivors who die in Ordinal Scale, and it's up to Kirito to figure out what's happening and put a stop to it. The villains are simple, cliche, and boring - you've seen them a million times before. Likewise, the new poster girl, Yuna, joins Yui, Eugeo, and Kizmel in Kawahara's growing list of "might as well just be human" AIs. The plot unfolds at a satisfying pace, utilizing a Mother's Rosario-esque structure. The story is completely self-contained. Basically, this is just another original anime movie for a popular anime. So why am I not giving this a five? Because A-1 Pictures brought their A game on this one. The action scenes are GORGEOUS. They're beautifully choreographed, making them easy to follow while simultaneously being fast and exciting. Even the final one, which was so fast-paced it'd put Sonic to shame, was an avalanche of awesomeness that I could enjoy without being confused. Captain America Civil War could've learned a thing or two from this movie. Additionally, all the action scenes were backed by a frankly kickass soundtrack, noticeably getting me more excited than I would be without them. Say what you will about SAO, but you can't deny that it's always had amazing sound direction, and it really shows in this movie. Don't get me wrong, though. There are plot holes. A LOT of them. How are these places in Tokyo empty enough for a bunch of LARPers to do their thing every night? Lemme tell you, I ain't ever seen the UDX plaza that empty, no matter how late it gets. How is the Augma not constantly making the news when people inevitably become spontaneously idiotic? Remember Pokemon Go? The Augma is supposedly even more prolific, and since it's a product, it's presumably here to stay. How are these make-believe battles actually making people recoil, making them encounter physical resistance to their movements (i.e. when they block an attack), sending them flying, and all these other things? How is Kirito - weak as he is in these battles - able to do even what he DOES accomplish? He is canonically a frail, weak, and slightly effeminate-looking nerd. In any other SAO production, I would not be able to forgive so many plot holes, which reek of the Kawahara who brought us the content of the TV anime. However, I can make an exception for Ordinal Scale. The movie does not take itself seriously. One problem with the TV anime is that it overblew the drama, making every single plot point feel like the end of the world. Ordinal Scale doesn't do that. It doesn't linger for longer than it should on any plot event, instead prioritizing constant movement to get to the next action scene. At one point, it even throws all logic and common sense right out the window, since it'd rather be awesome than have a coherent plot. The TV anime wanted you to take its stories and characters seriously, and that didn't work, since the writing was usually bad. By contrast, Ordinal Scale's writing is generally unremarkable (besides the litany of plot holes that perforate it like Swiss cheese), but it doesn't care. Rather than boast and brag and say, "Look at how great my story is," it instead directs your attention to the flashy and exciting fights. It just wants you to have a good time. Don't get me wrong - the fights were the best part of the TV anime too, but the difference is that Ordinal Scale WANTS you to focus on them. It succeeds at what it goes for, whereas the TV anime failed at what it was going for. That said, there was no reason why there needed to be so many unexplained plot holes - even a comment in passing would have sufficed - so my final rating for Sword Art Online Movie: Ordinal Scale is a seven out of ten. For all its flaws, it's hard to hate this movie, even for someone who's usually unimpressed by the SAO series. Existing fans will love it, and even haters might find something to like, too. Also, what was up with that post-credits scene? Unless it spoiled the mastermind of the Alicization arc (which I haven't finished) or the Moon Cradle arc (which I haven't even started), then are we getting more anime-original content?

Can I talk about Fumetsu no Anata e for a second?

For those of you who’ve never heard of it, this is a new manga series by the creator of Koe no Katachi, and it’s pretty darn brilliant so far. It’s about a... a ball of advanced machine-learning that some mysterious entity threw onto Earth because he was bored. This ball (which eventually gets named Fushi) can soak in knowledge and change its form, gaining new forms when it receives a significant-enough stimulus. It starts as a rock, then takes the form of a wolf that dies near it. It quickly dies too, since the wolf was gravely injured, but its regenerative capabilities make that a minor setback.

Anyway, Fushi the wolf eventually stumbles upon a boy whose village went in search of a paradise, leaving him behind to care for the (now deceased) elderly. Apparently the wolf (Johan) had belonged to the boy, who now believes that it had finally come back after a months-long absence. The remainder of the first chapter follows Fushi and the boy as they set out in search of the “paradise” that the village went to find so many years ago.

It’s immediately obvious that the boy values legacy and remembrance immensely. He keeps a wall of portraits of the other villagers, recognizing each one by name and personality (even saying, “I drew this as a reminder that people lived here - both for others, and for myself”). He recounts specific conversations from years in the past. He knows how long the wolf had been gone to an incredibly precise degree. When he takes wood from one of the abandoned houses, he comments that it’s improper, but he’ll just have to get scolded when he finds the house’s owner.

When he and Fushi go on their journey to find the paradise, they eventually come across signs - arrows painted on rocks - presumably left by the villagers. The boy is overjoyed by this, excitedly inferring myriad things about the villagers’ journey, as well as thrilled that they remembered him along the way. However, they eventually reach the point where the villagers’ party was wiped out, presumably through hunger, disease, or even attackers. The boy puts on a Shouko smile, reassuring himself and Fushi that this was incontrovertible proof that the villagers had been there. This quickly crumbles, and a combination of despair and a severe injury to the boy’s leg force them to return to the boy’s home. It’s clear by this point that mortality scares the boy on a profound level. Death terrifies him - it’s why he’s so enthusiastic about going out, seeing the world, meeting new people, and learning new things. It’s why he’s so desperate to remember things. In a way, he’s a lot like Fushi: learning and remembrance are their raison d’etre - though the difference is that the boy is extremely mortal, while Fushi is immortal. The irony here is tragic.

The injury gets worse, and a disease sets in, weakening the boy by the day. Eventually, he becomes so weak that it’s all he can do to sit in his chair. In front of his wall of portraits, he turns to Fushi and says, “Hey, Johan, I’ve got a favor to ask you. Remember me forever.”

And then he passes away.

This scene broke me. It destroyed me. The boy’s fears are my own. I am terrified of not meaning anything, of being insignificant. I am scared of dying before I get the chance to say to the universe, “I was here, and I mattered.” The boy did his best to remember the villagers, but he was unable to be remembered himself.

Or was he?

The strength of this stimulus leads Fushi to take the boy’s form and set out on a journey to meet new people and learn new things - he’s doing what the boy could not, taking up his legacy. The boy was remembered, and will be remembered forever. The rest of the series so far features Fushi as an observer of the world, seeking new stimulus and knowledge.

Which is why the events of the latest chapter intrigue me so, as they’re a sort of blasphemy against the boy’s memory and everything he stood for. The stakes are high, and I couldn’t be more invested. I do feel like Fushi learned to talk a little too quickly, though.

So the point of all this is, if you haven’t read this manga yet, I really suggest you check it out. It’s great.