I feel it would definitely be considered a cop out. Foreshadowing throughout the episode suggested that character's death would happen.

 

Zankyo no Terror looks like it has potential. Completely different from anything else I've seen so far.

Also, it's directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, creator of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, so you can expect something decent. Only 1 ep so far, but it's promising.

 

Just watched the first ep of Zankyo no Terror... definitely got potential. noitaminA may have just picked a winner.

Call it hyperbole if you want, but this might become the best anime in the Noir genre in quite a few years if they treat it right.

EDIT: Second episode of Aldnoah Zero. They aren't going in quite the direction I'd hoped they were, but there's something delightfully off about the MC, so I'm still hooked.

 

God, I hate licensing wars and stuff.

I'm willing to pay a site like Crunchyroll for bringing anime content and making everything more accessible. I think it's damn neat that websites streaming anime to outside of Japam has become a viable service. But when seasons come out and a fourth is on CR, a fourth is on Funimation, and half of it just isn't licensed at all, it's frustrating.

 

Mm, so that character is alive. Also, fairly certain the main character has asperger's. Otherwise, good first two episodes. I am impressed.

 

Watched the first two episodes of Aldnoah.Zero and so far, rather solid. I hope they are going somewhere like Merrill suspects with the terran protag, if he is just that cool or collected without being a cyborg or mentally different or something I doubt I will warm up to him.

Unless there is no explanation for it, it will be the worst part so far. I mean, if he doesn't give damn when they are invaded and are in mortal danger by a far superior enemy, why should I?

Regardless, rather liking the lieutenant and the martian protags so far. Definitely going to follow this.

 

I have incredibly high hopes for Aldnoah.Zero. It just feels like it has a lot of potential.

It'll be fun to compare it to the other mech show airing this season, as the other one seems pretty generic so far.

 

Also watched the first two episodes of Akama Ga Kiru and while I think I liked it, I agree that the villains so far really were just cartoonishly evil, like, after the second glance, not a redeemable bone in their body.

Furthermore, the series jumps from mood to mood in a way that gives me whiplash. It has a bit of slapstick comedy, typical shonen stuff with a guy trying to peek at naked girls, the usual fanservice and gay jokes, overreactions to teasing and whatnot, coupled with the shenanigans that happen when interacting with the blank and pseudo emotionless action girl and the teasing big breasted girl, but then it jumps to extreme torture, suffering and has throwaway lines about a woman having to sell her body countless times to get enough money to afford assassins to get the man who killed her fiancée.

It's not exactly unusual in anime, but I am not quite used to this degree of serious matters and shonen slapstick within the same 20 minutes.

And I know it is not this season but also watched the first two episodes of Girls und Panzer with my flatmate and it was dumb but somehow awesome at the same time. Loving the WTF factor one has when watching that anime. Like, nothing makes sense, so weird but it's still relatively accurate at the same time.

---------- Post automerged at 10:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 PM ----------

@ Rehio: Is crunchyroll worth subscribing to?

 

I'd say Crunchyroll is great depending on where you live. I would pay just for the 1080p, the extra bits are just bonuses.

As far as this season goes I've been watching Zankyu no Terror, Aldnoah;Zero, Akame ga Kill, gekkan shojou nozaki kun, Barakomon, Persona 4 Golden, Ao Haru Ride, Rail wars, SAO2 and Tokyo ESP. All but Rail wars are pretty safe from being dropped atm. I am also planning to watch Psycho Pass, Glasslip and Hanayamata aswell probably. Great season this.

 

Having read the manga, this is pretty much par for the course. There are a few villains later on that fall a bit more into a gray area, but most of them are pretty horrible people.

I think this is at least partially intentional. Night Raid has been doing this for a while and they're all pretty hardened assassins (as corny as that sounds). They're all a little messed up, and the killing and horrible shit that goes on in the capital doesn't really faze them anymore. So they use the humor to unwind. Tatsumi (and by extension, the audience), as the newcomer to the situation, would understandably feel a little whiplashed at how fast everyone can change between serious gameface and sillyness. He's from the sticks, and while life there is shitty, it's nowhere near as messed up as the capital, and he's by no means a hardened killer yet - he's got to work up some sense of justice before he can kill people. At least that's my take on it.

 

Saw second episode of Aldnoah Zero. Not surprised they didn't kill off the princess - we didn't really see enough of her in the first ep for it to be a Tomoe Mami style death, and something about her "death" scene made it feel like she survived.

Definitely something not right with the main character. In the first episode, wasn't sure what to think at how detached and bored he seemed during the assassination, but after seeing how he reacts to everything else? Definitely something else going on.


Also saw first episode of Zankyou no Terror. Very intrigued by this anime. The storyline concept does not seem like something that'd be easy to pull off at all, and I can't even predict where this will go. Hopefully it is done with justice though.

The execution is the really stand out thing so far - the animation style, colouring, etc is not something you see in anime series very often (though I have seen before in anime movies). OST, OP, ED all work together to set a unique feel to complement a unique concept. The way its directed is the same - many editing and cinematography devices that you don't usually see in anime.

High hopes for it. Main risks are that it becomes too artsy, and just becomes boring - or it fails to be thematically powerful enough (given its premise).

Huh, is that really a problem? I always thought CR pretty much simulcast all the major anime each season. At least, I'm basing that off the fact HorribleSubs (who shamelessly rip CR stuff) have pretty much everything you'd want to watch.

On a somewhat related note, looks like UTW will be cutting back on subbing in the future, if at all. Makes me sad, as they were my favourite fansub group. Part of the reasoning being that CR simulcasted subs are getting better and better, and fansubbing is a lot of effort to for what is becoming diminishing gains. Gone are the days where CR subtitles were absolutely terrible. Still, differences with UTW were still noticeable - not just subs, but thngs like typesetting, subbing things like signs, letters and other on screen text (instead of just dialogue), etc.

 

Funimation has Zankyou, Tokyo ESP, and Tokyo Ghoul. CR can't have 'em, I guess. =/ I was looking forward to seeing those three.

 

Its annoying that Crunchyroll doesn't license funimation shows outside the US. It's a strange situation.

 

I love Akama Ga Kiru. I think Esdese/Esdeath is one of my favorite villains I've ever seen.

Spoiler

The fact that she sees absolutely nothing wrong will killing and torture because of the beliefs of her tribe and other wise is a charming young woman who wants true love makes for an awesome character.

Some people might say that doesn't make a good character. I say it goes to show just how fucked up humans can be.

 

I have a similar view of Seryuu (Justice Girl). She's a delightfully fucked up character - it's something that the author of Akame ga Kill does really well imo.

 

I'm with Nemrut on this one, I don't think I can stand the whiplash of Akagame. I can buy the other guys been flippant and what not but not the MC. Its like his friends being brutally tortured and killed didn't affect him with how much its mentioned, just brief flashes and back to humor.

I don't know the tone doesn't fit for me. The author could have explored some really cool themes but since apparently every assassination target is completely evil, then I'm thinking this is just supposed to be a comedy with fighting?

I think it would be a better story if it were serious and the humor was actually part of the plot.

 

Morally gray antagonists will come to Akame ga Kill, but... not right away.

 

Mors is right on hindsight, not going to spoil but later on inner conflict/not completely horrible bad guys appear.

 

Caught up on the manga, so, as the others, won't spoil, but I will say that I will stick to this. Agree with Cruentus in that I really like Esdese so far. Pretty solid character and my favorite in this manga.

 

I've been underestimating Haikyuu a lot but the 17th episode was absolutely intense. It's been a while since I've been that caught up in a sports anime.