Your friend has good taste - Rokka no Yuusa is one of the best shows this season. Great example of how a basic (if cliched) premise can result in something great if coupled with a brilliant execution.

Jitsu wa Watashi on the other hand... It's basically just generic haremshit. Personally, I couldn't sink my teeth into it.

 

The manga is a superior beast solely on the strength of the art. Its character designs and exagerated reactions are the best.

 

I disagree. Rokka is a disappointment. The plus points include a decent opening song, great backgrounds, yet the animation quality is pretty terrible and the execution of the plot for the first few episodes so far are quite cringe-worthy.

I could be prejudiced because the source material was pretty damn good (I wouldn't call it clichéd), but so far the anime has failed to live up to it. Hopefully it gets better when they start progressing further into the plot...

 

Spoiler

Calling Nashetania as the traitor.

Overall it's good, best thing from this season in my opinion, can't wait to see more of Fremy.

 

Jitsu the manga is damn frustrating, the characters are great, exceot the MC who starts with a nice solid personality and is then turned into you forgetable everyman MC. As the story goes on the female characters get more and more development and he is lfet behind, becoming a McGuffing. The plot is also forgotten in favor of the gags and it mostly like fillers.

The art is great though, since it gives the series an originality and beauty that the plot is sorely lacking.

 

So only just got a chance to watching some of this season's stuff last night. So far, my thoughts:

Gangsta is let down by the characters. I initially went in hoping for a Black Lagoon type anime, but as people have pointed out, it's quite different in style - what with things like the "tag" system and the types of fights that seem to happen. That's not a problem in itself, and can still be something of potential. The issue is Alex.

Taking the Black Lagoon comparison, that story is told through the eyes of Rock. His narrative is how you go about experiencing Roanapur and learning about the Black Lagoon crew. His views are the real story - his initial conflict of values and then how he ends up adapting and even thriving in the city in his own way.

At times it feels like Alex is supposed to play this role. But she just really....sucks as a narrative teller. She's way too passive most of the time, and when she does seem to show some sort of emotion, it feels forced. It's inconsistent too - sometimes Alex is the protagonist and Nick/Worrick are these mysterious people she's trying to learn about, other times, Nick and Worrick are treated the protagonists, but they really don't seem to work well at that.

I suppose it may still have potential if the right storyline arc comes along, but at the moment, it's only mildly entertaining and I think that's all it'll stay.

God Eater feels like a Urobuchi's big fat animation experiment. What jumps out is the unique style of animation and some very Hollywood (and very non-anime like) style "camera work". Apart from that the first episode had nothing. Pacing didn't even exist as a thing - we rushed from scene to scene faster than Tokyo Ghoul Root A. We got zero emotional connection to the characters and there seemed to be no attempt to even try to get us to that. The whole episode had absolutely no soul. Unless someone tells me it changes, won't be continuing this.

Gate is really fun. I like it for the same reason I like shitty Familiar of Zero crossovers. This sort of concept is the sort of thing I come up with in my head when reading/watching fantasy. It's terrible and awesome. I just wish they didn't make the protagonist an otaku - that's just taking the wish fulfillment to another level of cheesiness.

From episode three, I'm worried it'll change it's focus away from the whole macro stuff - the conflict with the kingdom, the cultural differences, politics, logistics etc (everything I usually get bored of in a typical SpaceBattles fic) - over creating a kinky harem for the main protagonist. Because seeing a cavalry army getting mowed down by tank shells and rifle rounds is the reason we're watching this - not for any attempted character interaction or development with this cast of one dimensional characters. It'll go the route of Sword Art Online - basically moving away from everything that sold it's original concept for harem shit.

Charlotte had a great fantastic first episode. "Boy has special powers, boy meets girl who also has powers and is running a club for those with powers" is one of the most common tropes in anime. But seeing the main character be a complete and absolute cunt with his powers, shamelessly using it for his own benefit at the cost of others, is something that was pretty interesting.

But I'm not keeping my hopes up. By episode 2, Yuu had gone from near-sociopath to your typical Key protagonist which destroys my hope for a more gradual character development for him. Still, Nao Tomori is kinda interesting in her general interactions that I will continue watching for now and the two arcs we've seen have been somewhat entertaining, so I'll continue for the moment. Think it'll end up being an Angel Beats sort of thing.

Oh, and like most Key anime, it has a fantastic OP. Almost feels like an AMV at points.

Akagami no Shirayukihime - I was hoping it'd be an Akatsuki no Yona thing (except without the pitfalls that show fell into in the later episodes), but no, it's worse. It's shoujo wish fulfillment, complete with the dazzling prince who solves all the conflict in the blurb by the end of episode 1. Dropped.


Will continue trying some of the others which have been talked up in this thread next.

 

Finally given up all hope on Classroom Crisis.

 

Is it as shit as its ratings on MAL make it out to be?

I've not started watching, but I had high hopes for it - which look to be dashed now.

 

It's not the worst thing I've seen but nothing about it can I actively say is 'good'. It shows little bits of promsie but by the end of the episode you always come away disappointed

 

It is not utter crap, but it IS a waste of time, spend your time on something better.

 

The more I keep watching Rokka, the more I would love to see Adlet being the false Brave.

 

Personally, I think it's Nashetania.

 

Same, exactly why I don't want it to be her.

Have some minor suspicions about Goldorf but they're shelved for now, primarily the two month absence

 

Yeah. I agree. I'm hoping for full-blown crazy yandere though. Not just innocent and used/misled.

 

I'm thinking it's her as well; we're getting hints of that nature. Did you see what happened when the barrier went up? She completely lost her shit for a second there. Flemie is obnoxious and not at all likable, but she's just too obvious as a traitor. No doubt she'll be the default suspect for a while, though.

 

Flemy will have a ~ tragic backstory ~ though. It's basically inevitable that she'll crush on Adlet, too.
Though maybe the show'll surprise me. Already happened with Adlet's fighting style, so it could happen.

 

Adlet's fighting style is geared towards one thing and that's culling demons, it was great he didn't turn into some godsend swordsman who always fought honorably. It's smart and effective, I like it.

 

Yeah, I'm waiting for the inevitable sob story, but if she wants to get any sympathy from me she'll have to remove her head from her ass and put on something resembling a shirt. Seriously, that fucking outfit, why? I do like that Adlet isn't being a complete shōnen-style idiot where she's concerned; the scene where he's watching her with the mirror covertly was a nice touch. Trust, but verify.

The universe it's set in seems pretty interesting, though. You get hints of world-building and the occasional surprise, like the shape-shifting fiend which tricked Adlet, and the scenery is pretty. The protagonist subscribing to the Ulyssian school of combat pragmatism is also a refreshing change.

 

Spoiler

I'll admit to reading ahead in the LN, it's not too much of a sobstory really but it adds a shit ton to her character.

 

Rokka getting intense. Hans might have straight up become my #2 out of the 7, Adlet is still my favorite at the moment.

And Shokugeki didn't skip the Karaage arc and I think the timing works well too, switching Soma's dad and it around makes it flow smoother for me.