Winter 2016-7: General Impressions thread - post your opinion and grade

[Flower]

With most series being around the three ep range (either done or incoming), let's talk about the current anime season, Winter 2016-7.

The intention of the thread is mostly to discuss what's hot and new, but any thoughts on carryovers from previous seasons may be brought up, but do make sure you are talking about the most recent episodes (don't come here to rant about One Piece or Naruto fillers from last year, for example).

Because it is still early, it may be a good idea to express grades in terms of keep/drop/stall if you're unwilling to give a rating at this point, or something like that. I'm more interested in which new shows are your priorities and why.

Previous formats went something like this, but obviously you are free to express your thoughts however you want; your rating can be in terms of letter grades, numerical ratings, facedesks, Chitosefaces, Satelights, Kawamoris, kisekis, etc. Or maybe you don't believe in grades. Your explanations are far more important than what you actually gave out.

Name of Series:
Episodes Watched:
Rating:
Comments:
Status (Keep/drop/stall):

Also, I would ask that any specifics be kept in spoiler tags, please.

Nobody will arrest you for violating any formats or anything so post whatever thoughts and try not to comment on other people too much.

[Dawnstorm]

My favourite show this season comes as no surprise, since it was my favourite show of 2016: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. Anecdote: I recognised a rather famous rakugo skit (the jugemu one) from the ending song of Joshiraku. It made me realise how much I miss (in both shows) by not having the cultural background. I love the show so dearly and am glad to have it back. I'd say it has a good chance to be my fave of 2017 as well, but spring already has Uchouten Kazoku 2 scheduled...

Next in line is one of two shows, and I can't decide which:

Demi Chan wa Kataritai is warm-hearted show about the practical and identity issues of "monster girls". I really like the art, and the characters are all likable. Only downside is that teacher crushing and related jokes can overwhelm some isolated scenes. Otherwise it's just so much fun to watch.

ACCA is the other contender for the number two spot. I love how it builds up tension through its calm, dry presentation. Some underplayed surreality here and there (like eating a giant strawberry) add a nice touch, too. Good narrative control, too. A show about beaurocracy, intrigue and food. A winner.

Next, I also enjoy Scum's Wish. It's an uncomfortable watch, but the show's pretty good at getting across what the characters feel. It's a bit of a depravity cluster and sometimes lays thing on too thickly without much reprieve, so there's a slight chance that the show's going to lose me to exhaustion, or through reductio ad absurdum. But generally it works very well for me.

Around that level, but with less risk of losing me, is Kobayashi san Chi no Maid Dragon, which is just warm-hearted and cute. Kobayashi is one of my favourite characters this season (as long is she's not drunk).

A step below that are another couple of shows:

Fuuka is a bog-standard romance with occasional irksome fanservice (sometimes isolated in pockets but sometimes tone-deaf and scene-destroying).

Seiren alternates each episode between so-so and good; I find the main lead irritating, but generally I like watching the show.

Gabriel Dropout is decent and very consistent character comedy - this means that the comedy gets better once you get used to the character, but then levels out and gives you no surprises. It's fun, though.

Little Witch Academia is exactly what I expected. I'd probably prefer a spin-off about Sucy, but the show's entertaining enough in itself.

Onihei is a pretty good episodical Samurai drama. You don't get too many of them these days so if that's your thing it's definitely worth checking out. It's not my genre, but I appreciate it for what it is.

Konosuba is pretty much what it was, and after some start-up problems I'm enjoying it again, but diminishing-returns also set in (otherwise it'd be a tier above this one).

Ao no Exorcist is back, and I'm enjoying it. It feels more serious in presentation this time round (more subdued colours? my memory is bad), and while that's a good thing in some scene, over-all it's a little less fun.

Akiba's Trip isn't quite as much fun as I hoped it would be when I heard that the Robot Girls Z team was responsible for the show, but it's still endearingly dorky. They deserve credit for their dedication of turning the monster-of-the-week formula into the otaku-of-the-week celebration (whether it's games, idols, radios or computers). I do like the character designs.

A tier below that are shows that are so-so, but have some redeeming features.

If there's one thing I didn't expect Masamune kun no Revenge to turn out to be it was dull. But that's pretty much where I am now. I just don't care. It has good direction and an excellent soundtrack, though.

BangDream is dull as a slice-of-life show, but the music aspect is surprisingly good. They actually walk us through the absolute-beginners stage of practising, and they nail the sounds, without being grating. (I don't think I've ever, in any show, seen anyone play an unplugged electric guitar.)

Urara Meirochou has got character designs I like, and it's moderately charming. The same goes for the cycling club show whose name I don't bother remembering.

A lot of my top shows this season started last year: 3-gatsu no Lion (which got its act together after some start-up stuttering), Sengoku Chouchugiga (which is a hilarious short), Classicaloid (which is good dopy fun), and Tiger Mask W (which nails wrestling cheesiness and makes you feel the pain during the matches - not enough people watch this one I feel).

Among the new shorts, I'm having fun with both Nyanko Days (I wish this were slightly longer, around 10 minutes?) which runs on catgirl cuteness, and Piace - Watashi no Italian which is much better than I expected it to be and manages to get set up, development and conclusion into its short run-time at a brisk pace that nevertheless doesn't feel hurried.

Finally, there's the what-am-I-supposed-to-think-of-this tier I had to make up for a show I don't know what to think of:

Kemono Friends. Antropomorphic animal girls in some sort-of devastated post-apocalyptic Safari park. I hate CGI, and this is bad CGI. The acting and plot is extremely childish. But it's not bad. But it's not good either. And it's impossible to forget, so it's not boring. What am I supposed to think of this?

[Alf]

Name of Series: Chaos;Child
Episodes Watched: 6
Rating: Chaos;Thrilling
Comments:
This is quite good on the mystery and thriller front. Unlike Chaos;Head, this is something comprehensible, and the story line is intense. The drawback is there are scenes that you wish they had put more time on it, and sometimes you need to keep a closed eye on some stupidity and psudo-science. People who hates templated and one noted characters will have a hard time at early stage. Nonetheless, the thriller scenes are handled well, the mystery is captivating, and they have a very matching and one of the best OP ED of the season. An enjoyable watch.
Status: Keep

Name of Series: Gabriel Dropout
Episodes Watched: 6
Rating: Snack after work
Comments:
It's fun, but not particularly strong comedy. Can be hit or miss, but at least I got a couple good laugh every episode. It's good after a tired day of work and want to release some frustration by looking at Satanya suffering and S-mode Hanazawa Raphiel, while healed by the sloth of Gabriel and the should-be-angel Vigne. It's like a good snack, taste good in the mouth but don't have the satisfaction of a meal.
Status: Keep

Name of Series: Gundam IBO
Episodes Watched: 43
Rating: Best Gundam TV series in ? years
Comments:
The entire series starts with violence, and recently showing what end is of the way of violence. So far it didn't disappoint, except it seems the chocolate isn't 80% dark chocolate.
Status: Keep

Name of Series: Kemono Friends
Episodes Watched: 5
Rating: Japan's National Geographics for Kids
Comments:
Got curious about its hype at Japan(the books with disc sold out!), and so far it's a well executed eductation show for kids, except the 3D CG are very subpar. Although it's a kid's show, it doesn't bore you to hell, and the kid silliness is different from plain stupidity. So it's good for parents watching with their kids together. Perhaps we can all it National Geographics: The Animation? Though there isn't a lot of reason to follow it further as I don't find a lot of appeal in it, except for the mystery of the status of the world.
Status: Stall

Name of Series: Konosuba 2
Episodes Watched: 6
Rating: Konosuba is Konosuba
Comments:
The gag handling has improved in this season, and it's so far very stable on the quality of the comedy. While I don't find the comedy of Konosuba to be exceptionally good, it's still very effective in its own way.
Status: Keep

Name of Series: Kuzu no Honkai
Episodes Watched: 6
Rating: The Shimmering Pool of Black Muds That Flows Like Honey
Comments:
This is disturbing, but also what I was looking into when decided to watch this. The entire exection is excellent. The story is straight trainwreck that could be seen from miles away. While the characters have the flaw of having little outside of their problem of feeling, sex, and ego, the show is having very intense focus to cover up a lot of such flaw. But the lack of restrain from life factors is worrying as it may turn into the direction of 18+ doujin logics.
Status: Keep

Name of Series: Masamune Kun no Revenge
Episodes Watched: 5
Rating: Expected waste of many good aspects
Comments:
The show is very much like Masamune himself. Looks great, characters have certain charm themselves, but having flaws that can't be compensated. At first Masamune and Aki's somewhat bad personality is quite interesting, but Masamune is just too stupid to carry out his plan and this screws up the tension, and the entire thing becomes boring. Although there are still comedy and some character moments, but those are not effective enough to compensate the down side.
Status: Drop

Name of Series: One Room
Episodes Watched: 6
Rating: Cute girl + void MC = horror?
Comments:
Template Galgame: The Animation. The girls are very well animated, and it's just less than 5 mins of it so it doesn't hurt. Supposed to be guilty pleasure of the week, but certain cut of episode 4 have turned it into horror Now there's this new way to enjoy it: give it the Chaos;Head setting then you have a hilarious horror.
Status: Keep

Name of Series: Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinchu: Sukeroku Again Chapter
Episodes Watched: 7
Rating: AOTS
Comments:
Well, it's too good. Do I have to say anything more? Oh yeah, having Yotaro has the protagonist this time make it a more personal watching experience, as contrast to the 3rd person stance of the last season. Making it even better.
Status: Keep

Name of Series: Reikenzan: Eichi e no Shikaku
Episodes Watched: 7
Rating: More attention deserved, subs?
Comments:
It's actually much better than season 1. There are still a lot of flaws in it's art and animation, and there are still problem in how it handle the details of the story. But the theme of this story arc is something unfound in Japanese writings. It's kind of like Log Horizon Round Table arc but in a morally questionable direction and less clever presentation. They have also made it much more understandable than season 1, but simplified things a bit too much and seemed cut out the economic side of things. It's quite a decent watch if you can put aside moral values, tolerate low quality, and avoid self insert. The soundtrack is also quite good but not the OP ED, and OP animation is facepalm material. It seem to suffer from lacking good subs.
Status: Keep

Name of Series: Sangatsu no Lion
Episodes Watched: 17
Rating: It's Life
Comments:
This is very good. Many aspects of life weaving together into the story, and the artistic presentations are really good highlight of this series. There are comedies, work life, home life, competition....and when being ask for thoughts on the show, you can always say: It's life
Status: Keep

Name of Series: Tales of Zesteria the X
Episodes Watched: 19 (ep0+ep1-18)
Rating: Tales ZX: Quest of the Avatar
Comments:
2nd cour has been lingering quite a bit on Rose arc, and some people find it boring. But not a problem for me as I have aways regard the malevolence problem as the main plot. High fantasy dealing with moral problem as the main plot isn't as uncommon as the old days, but it's still rare beast to actually put it into the setting and make it a major task. It's interesting to watch what kind of route it takes to keep the ideal while avoiding too much out of reality, and exciting to see ufotable's spectacular animation to present this story.
Status: Keep

[Flower]

Guess I will also chime in here....

TL;DR…

Winter 2016-7 Mid Season Sketch

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[SPARTAN 119]

Youjo Senki
Episodes Watched: 7
Comments: Overall, I am still enjoying this, in spite of the weirdness of the protagonist being reincarnated into a child soldier-loli-mage in an alternate World War I, as well as the main character who is an obvious psychopath. If you can get past that, and you are somewhat familiar with history, you might find some of the parallels with real life interesting, and overall this to be a pretty good alternate history storyline.
Smartass Remarks: Damn you Being X!; Lolifield 1; A prime target for artillery; Does this look like the face of a hero to you?; Luftsturmtruppen; How to shoot down a bomber with a stick grenade

Kuzu no Honkai
Episode Watched: 7
Comments: This series has been really controversial among the fanbase, with some people loving and some people hating it. Personally, I felt the characters were not always likable, but sympathizible (with the exception of NTR-sensei- if you've seen this, you should know who I am talking about), though maybe because I know more about being sexually frustrated in my teenage years than I care to admit. While I can empathize with the characters, I do not really get invested in any of their relationships, as I know full well that they are not the kind of thing that is going to last (like most relationships in ones teenage years, realistically speaking), and some of them are even downright destructive. I also like how the art style fits perfectly with the character's psychological state, such as the scenes where blackness slowly invades the screen as a character is feeling particularly dark emotions. Overall, I am liking this as a psychological character study, but I am definitely not invested in the romance, but I'm pretty sure that is the point.
Smartass Remarks: Human dakimakura relationship; Sexual Frustration: The Anime; A cynic's highschool anime; NTR-sensei; I think Hanabi just broke; This school is a magnet for fucked-up people.

Rewrite Season 2
Episodes Watched: 7
Comments: To be honest, after the trainwreck of the first season, I'm kind of surprised that this doesn't completely suck. The story has been a bit confusing what with the sudden switching between arcs, but it has thus far been comprehensible, and doesn't seem as rushed as the first season. Only time will tell if that continues...
Smartass Remarks: Web of parallel universes; Gaia hypothesis gone apeshit; Kotarou goes to war; Bondo, Suzuki Bondo

[Tanuki.]

I'm still waiting for the shows I really want to watch to finish before I pick them up, but I'm really excited to watch Shouwan Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu S2, March comes in like a lion and I think I'll have fun with Little Witch Academia and Scum's Wish. I might also look into ACCA

Stuff I've watched so far (some of it for work-related reasons):

Kobayashi-san's Dragon Maid
Episodes Watched: 9
I'm actually quite surprised how much I like this show. It's warm, it's funny, its animation and expressiveness is excellent and it has some very humane moments.

Onihei
Epidodes Watched: 3
I was intested in this because of Masao Maruyama and his new Studio M2 as well as the historic setting and the TV drama origins. It's an interesting watch. I don't really consider it "fun" at the moment because I haven't really gotten into it yet, but I like the serious presentation, the art direction and the rather gloomy episodic stories.

Idol Incidents
Epidodes Watched: 9
This is really bad. I never expected much in the first place, but gee, this is without a doubt MAPPA's worst work to date. I've never been into idol shows, but even without having watched many of these shows I can see how utterly uninspired Idol Incidents is. It's premise is a bit unusual, but it works against the show because it leads to many cringy moments where the girls suddenly start to sing their songs and the problems they were confronted with are magically solved. The show is also a great example that not all idol shows sell.

Minami Kamakura High School Girls Cycling Club
Epidodes Watched: 9
Not a good show, either, mostly some of the characters are overly dumb or infantile. I would have liked a show with some kind of roadtripy slice-of-life atmosphere, but that's not what Minakama is.

[Aprill]

Hi. I watched this anime Masamune Kun No Revenge. I liked more than anything.

[Marcus H.]

My 2017 as an anime fan was rather bleak. All I managed to pick up was Hand Shakers and Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon, and I'm really struggling to catch up to Sangatsu no Lion due to real-life situations. Fortunately, I managed to actually marathon my way through Sangatsu quick enough to watch the last episode live. Alas, Hand Shakers was removed from my list before I could watch Episode 1 due to widespread panning of the series.

Name of Series: Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon
Episodes Watched: 12/13
Rating: 8.7/10
Comments: I was never a Cool Kyoushinja fan, but it was what Kyoani can provide that led me into picking up the show. 11 episodes later, there are still no regrets in diving into the familial adventures of office worker Kobayashi and her dragon companions. Tohru's dedication to mingle with human society is admirable, and Kanna is a weapons-grade adorable little girl. <3
Status (Keep/drop/stall): Keep

Name of Series: Demi-chan wa Kataritai
Episodes Watched: 12/12
Rating: 8.9/10
Comments: Machi, the dullahan longing for affection, was the main reason I picked up this show... and that was way late into the series too. Expectations were focused on the comedy, but I soon found out that the series has more to it than just another "monster girl" anime. The concept of physical traits of a monster girl treated as medical conditions is a refreshing idea, and it adds a lot of flavor to Takahashi-sensei's interactions with Hikari, Machi, Yuki and Sakie-sensei. Speaking of Sakie-sensei, holy cow, she's a beauty!
Status (Keep/drop/stall): Completed, and longing for a second season

Name of Series: Sangatsu no Lion
Episodes Watched: 23/23
Rating: 8.2/10
Comments: The second half of 3gatsu delivered the contrast to the bleak-then-bright outlook of Rei's life in the first half. At this point, Rei has slowly gotten used to the cheerful personalities of the Mikazuki-dou sisters, all while battling with his past and present struggles. I appreciate the imagery used in this half of the season than in the first (which composed more of Rei always drowning in his thoughts), but the end did not feel conclusive, thus the lower rating. Still, it's a worthwhile watch, and offers things to think about.
Status (Keep/drop/stall): Completed, anticipating the second season on October

Name of Series: Hand Shakers
Episodes Watched: 0/12
Rating: Unnecessary
Comments: GoHands has been a weird as fuck studio for me. Their unusual animation techniques make them a unique studio, but their approach sometimes doesn't work. They were rather tame with Coppellion, but they started an experimental streak with K, which followed through with Hand Shakers. That said, Hand Shakers was fucking weird. The concept alone (fighting pairs that must maintain cojoined hand contact) is one thing, but the camera techniques can be rather too much for an anime fan.
Status (Keep/drop/stall): Removed from list, hoping that GoHands doesn't smoke before making an anime project

[Flower]

Okay - a post for the final assessment for Winter 2016-7.

TL;DR…

 

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