Ah, haven't really been into Moe. Well, I guess there's a first time for everything.

 

I'd argue Idolmaster isn't really a moe series. It is because the cast is comprised mostly of cute girls, but the plot has plenty of substance to go with it. It's certainly not in the same league of moe as something like K-On! (Although, to be fair, I like K-On! quite a bit...)

 

First episode of Active Raid was kinda meh.

Really confused why the main chick randomly exclaims some things in English...

 

Psycho Pass: The Movie

tl;dr, highly recommend this, an absolutely epic movie.

So finally got around to watching this today. After the "meh" that was the second season, I had lost much of my hype in the movie and so kept putting it off. I was expecting just another fan-servicey rehash of the plot of the first season (which is exactly what the second season was - and what MOST anime movie adaptions to series tend to be).

Instead the movie absolutely blew my expectations.

The Movie takes the background created by Season 1 and then creates something completely different, bigger in scale and takes exploring the themes to the next level.

We are exposed to the state of the rest of the world - a situation similar to Brave New World, with the ordered dystopia of Japan in stark contrast to the war-torn countries making up the remaining countries. The majority of the movie is set in a country called South East Asia Union - a nation that has just accepted a trial implementation of Sibyl to be installed in its capital.

The whole atmosphere of the movie is completely different to the series. This isn't a urban investigative thriller anymore. Investigations and small shootouts are replaced by full scale modern warfare battles. And they are very cool - well animated, exciting and interesting to see the sort of technology used in the futuristic battlefields.

Now let's talk characters. Season 2 introduced us to a bunch of absolutely boring cardboard cutout characters to fill in gaps (apart from maybe Shimotsuki, who was probably the only thing good about the season). The movie makes the pretty gutsy and welcome move to drop pretty much all of them from the cast.

The movie is about Akane and Kougami - that's it. And both of them play their roles fantastically. Kougami is his usual badass self and its great to see him back on the screen, but who I really enjoyed was Akane. It's really apparent that she has come into her own since Season 1 - no longer the little puppy who followed Kougami. There's plenty of great scenes of her kicking ass, and doing it in her own distinct way.

Spoiler

The final scene of her confronting Chairman Han/Sibyl was pretty damn epic. In some ways it's almost identical to similar scenes in both Season 1 and Season 2, but nonetheless still managed to deliver.

The plot is well structured, deals with the themes well and creates the right situations for the sort of character exploration we're after. It probably is a bit predictable, but I didn't really find that annoying (since it's not really a mystery thriller anymore).

Spoiler

I'm also not sure whether to be impressed or not that after all of that, somehow, the movie managed to still make Sibyl seem like the right answer for society. Apart from Brave New World, this is the only dystopia that the narrative seems to consistently kinda support.

Overall, I wouldn't have done anything differently (and that's something I rarely have to say about an anime). It's a high quality movie that isn't just fan service cashing in on the popularity of the series, but a fantastic story in itself that actually moves away from the series in many aspects and doing its own thing. If you haven't gotten around to watching it, I'd highly recommend it. Same to anyone who hasn't actually seen the series yet.

If you really don't want to watch Season 2, you can probably get away having only seen season 1. There may be a few scenes that don't have as much impact (because you don't know the new characters), but they're pretty minor things at the start and end that aren't plot critical.

 

I haven't watched a whole ton of anime but my favourite that I've watched so far is Your Lie in April. The music in it is pretty good and the plot was decent. Still made me cry though.

 

Its very interesting how they convey Music in this anime.

 

Started Higurashi the other day, I knew what I was getting into, but at the same time I'm still trying to process what the actual fuck I'm watching.

On that note though solid 8/10 so far, it's unnerving as hell but still so interesting to watch.

 

Love Higurashi, and would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it yet. Fantastic plot, execution and general feel.

It does the eerie, creepy atmosphere really well - even in the more slice of life build up episodes. I think a large part of it is the fact that it so very rarely uses any background music. That, and both the OP & ED are some of the best examples that actually amplifies or change the feel of the episode.

Kai (Season 2) was a bit of a disappointment to me. That's not to say it was bad, but it had a few big issues with it that did diminish it. The slice of life bits stopped being about raising the tension and more about humour and fan service. In general, it lost the whole atmosphere that made season 1 so good. And while the plot was generally very decent (and rounded up the mysteries pretty well), it did some really annoying things that really ruined a lot of it.

Spoiler

Like the existance of Hanyuu. Completely killed half of the atmosphere. Rika would have been so much better by herself.

Also, bunch of kids taking down special forces group. What. "You could be SAS." What. It seemed to be a complete change in theme to the rest of the anime.

 

Steins;Gate is a must for anyone, not just anime fans. The same goes for 'Angel Beats!'. If you also haven't watched Berserk yet then you should do that first.

 

Started Zetsuen no Tempest/Blast of Tempest today, only 5 episodes in but happy to give a rec for it. The world building and general plot is intriguing and the action was pretty decent to watch as well. Too early to give it a score or anything but it's keeping my interest and might be one I binge over the next 2 days.

 

Just finished watching Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun.

Female protagonist confesses to oblivious guy who is actually a manga artist and totally misreads the situation, leading to her becoming one of his assistants. The anime is about Nozaki, Chiyo, his various assistants and their friends.

It's technically a humor/romance, but the romance part is not vital, nor shows up often. Chiyo's crush on Nozaki is only relevant on the first and (arguably) last episode and played mostly for humor, and I liked how they made her realistically know what to expect after a while. Hell, the side characters get more action.

Speaking of, I was surprised by the show's side characters; which were more than I'm used to but still well-defined and with interesting scenes of their own. They often feel just as central as the two leads and that's great, as the anime is mostly about Nozaki drawing inspiration for his manga from them and Chiyo doing her best to help him.

The animation is top notch, and the humor is on point. It has a weird combination of (sometimes) realism and other times overblown humor that nevertheless seems to blend and work fine.

One downside is, perhaps, the lack of conclusive closure on Chiyo's one-sided romance but as I said, it was never the focus so it's fine. Also, another negative is that while the series was good in all respects, it never seemed to excel at any of them. No aspect was so impressive and memorable that it'll stay in mind for a long time, etc.

It's 12 episodes long and complete. I'd reccomend it for a laugh. It's a decent anime.

 

I have a lot of love for Witchblade though that might be because it's one of the first titles I've watched.

 

So, has anyone watched Ajin from this season? I personally think it's one of the top contenders for AOTS, but regrettably people can't seem to look past the CGI.

The premise is that a small group of people (less than 50 worldwide) are immortal beings called Ajins. These Ajins don't know they're immortal until they are in a lethal situation and survive. The main character didn't know until he was hit by a bus and survived.

There is a large amount of discrimination against the Ajin; mainly because it's rumored that the government will give 50M Yen to any information leading to the capture of one. Presumably, they seek to "protect" and "secure" these immortals, to protect them from those seeking to profit off them.

Characters are great, music and voice-acting is fantastic, and the plot is thrilling. However, people are put off at the fact that it's done in CGI. Done by the same studio that did Knights of Cydonia, it's one of the main things that push people away. It really shouldn't; it's incredibly smooth and high-quality. I was hesitant when I first watched it, but it grows on you after one or two episodes. Here's a gunfight that happens in the middle of the season to see how smoothly the animation is: LINK. Mild spoilers.

In summary, if you're looking for a decent thriller with interesting characters, cool fights and great music, this is it. I'll leave you with the OP.

 

Honestly, Ajin was probably my least favorite anime last season, for the CGI alone. It was so unbearable for me, I dropped it after one episode. And this is coming from someone who sat through Sidonia no Kishi without a problem, so it's not like I necessarily can't stand CGI on principle - it's just that it didn't fit with Ajin.

With Sidonia, the show was set in space, so the CGI sort of fit the overall feel of the show - with a bleak setting on a ship and in the blackness of space, everything meant to be dull, and lifeless. It really meshed well with the feeling of coldness the story was trying to convey.

Ajin, however, did not fit with the CGI at all. I have this problem whenever I see horror mixed with CGI - especially when something is entirely CGI. IMO, CGI just can't match actual, hand drawn, honest to God art when it comes to unsettling a viewer - it's too sleek, too mechanical, too processed. Hand drawn content feels more... organic, I guess. Fits better with a horror setting.

With Ajin it feels like they didn't choose to use CGI because it fit the story or the tone of the series, but just because that's the only style of animation Polygon Pictures is good at.

I don't know, I might pick up the manga, because the story itself seemed interesting, but the art was far too obtrusive for me to enjoy the anime.

 

Ajin is pretty good once you get used to the CGI. Phenomenal atmosphere, especially through the music. Though, admittedly, the subject matter was rather dark at times.

Spoiler

Most awesome moment for me: Satou on top of the large tower as it falls onto the target building. Brace for impact indeed.

 

Ajin is on my list to watch, but not really looking forward to the CGI aspect of it.

Completely agree with Pure Infinity in that CGI sort of worked for Sidonia, since it was meant to be a sort of weird, alien sci fi culture and the slightly weird animation worked well to give it another thing to seem a bit strange about. But CGI animation in general tend to make the characters feel soulless to me. Anime style art is great because it can be so expressive, and you just don't really get that with current level of 3D CGI.

 

Finished Ajin last weekend and I'd definitely recommend trying to push past the CGI. It's worth it.

 

They actually changed that scene for the anime.

Spoiler

In the manga he actually hijacks a plane and flies it into the building instead of blowing up the one next to it. Given part of the audience the anime had it was understandable why it changed. Plus like you said the anime version was way cooler.

I picked up Ajin in the first week or so and the subs were so horrible I dropped it. Saw it on netflix and gave it another go and the subs were way better. So if anyone else was like me give it another shot the subs are way better and the show itself is decent.

 

Since CGI in anime was brought up, I want to point to an example of CGI actually being really amazing - the new Gantz:O teaser. Just look at that - it's absolutely amazing! For a second I actually thought they were using live actors, but nope. God I love it when shit I love gets a big budget movie adaption.