Currently Watching (Autumn 2011 Edition)

[Suwako Moriya]

By the time I go to bed and get up, it will probably be October 1st, so it's Autumn time! Maybe this time around, I'll be better about updating. Maybe if I'm more selective about what I watch? or better about putting my thoughts together. In any case, here is the info.


The link to the Summer 2011 Edition (http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showpost.php?p=1947610&postcount=1)

Note
- change the title of your post to reflect the contents.
- do not use the Post Reply button; instead, click quote on the post you wish to reply to, or on this post if you're starting a new subthread.
- edit down the quoted section to the relevant bits, nobody needs to read someone's epic list of watched stuff twice.
- be nice to one another

Also, I'd like to add the following. The Currently Watching Thread is mainly meant for a general overview of how you're currently feeling about shows. It is not supposed to be a replacement for actual discussion threads. Try to keep heavier discussion (if possible) in the more specific discussion threads.

In addition, try to be careful of spoilers here. It's one thing if it's properly tagged and such. However, I don't want people to have to worry about someone randomly posting "Wow, X died in episode 17 of Y". Just a randomly made up example.

[Buckeye]

Here is my lineup for the Fall 2011 season.

Planning to Watch:


Spice and Wolf
Bakemonogatari
Darker Than Black
A-Channel
No. 6
Linebarrels of Iron
Soul Eater (from episode 27)
Durarara! (from episode 13)
Bleach (from episode 221)
Pokemon Black & White (from episode 33)
Utawarerumono (rewatch)
K-On! (rewatch from episode 9)


As far as newly airing stuff goes, here are the shows that are high priorities that I plan on checking out before the rest:

Fate/Zero
Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere (if available to non-subscribers on TAN)
Chihayafuru
Last Exile -Fam of the Silver Wing-
Un-Go
Guilty Crown


Of course, this list is subject to change. This season, I plan on watching more streams and fewer DVDs. Spice and Wolf II is up first for this season.

[pianocello]

Currently watching (episodes watched up to in brackets):

Outstanding
Yuruyuri (5)
Considering how mediocre the previous spring season had been, I was delighted with this show - it's like this show was made for me. Unless something outstanding comes out in fall, this show might end up being the no. 1 anime of 2011. With all the tension in this show, it makes you wonder how the girls are restraining themselves from ****ing each other.

Very Good
Usagi Drop (5)
Shows like this often make me go AWWWW. Sweetly sentimental and sentimentally sweet.

Good
Nekogami Yaoyorozu (1)
I had my reservations but this show won me over. It reminds me of Wagaya no Oinari-sama with a dash of yuri.

Average
R-15 (1)
Not as bad as some people are making this out to be but it will take a few episodes before I can decide if I like this.

Sacred Seven (1)
Male lead is too angsty for my taste but I like the female characters.

Ro-Kyu-Bu! (1)
Character designs are a little ehh for my taste and the high-pitched squeaky voices are not for me but still this has potential to be good.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel (1)
After enjoying the darkness of the OAV, this seems seriously dumbed down. I will continue watching this for Aoi's boobs though. ;)

Blade (1)
Story has potential but animation is really shitty. The action scenes look like they only have 10 frames of animation.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee (3)
The Aria-like pace of the show is s little snooze-inducing. I haven't given up hope though.

Tiger and Bunny (1)
Too campy for my taste but I do appreciate their having an older protagonist instead of your usual teenager.

Steins; Gate (1)
The male lead has the potential to either be VERY annoying or a great laugh.

Below Average
None

[Glamrgrl104]

Peach Girl-episodes 1-8- Surprising I like it a lot better than the 1st time I watched it.


Gantz live action movie- Good premise and I liked it better than what I watched of the anime. Downside it was depressing everyone died just about, but I guess it was pretty bad ass when they were fighting aliens. It has good action just lax on the deeper storytelling and character development.

[DataDogEin]

The only new show I'm following so far is the second season of Ika Musume. Looking forward to Shana III though.

I meant to finish up Steins;Gate from the summer; haven't made it past around episode 15, even though I was really enjoying it. Instead I somehow managed to find time to catch up on Idolmaster :sd:

I also recently dug out my dvds and marathoned the first season of Suzumiya Haruhi and am now slogging through the "Endless Eight" on CR. Now I remember why I stopped watching after the second loop; maybe it's my old Trekkie instincts kicking in but seriously, is it such a gigantic mental leap to go from the discovery of "Yuki remembers each past loop" to then act upon it? "What have we tried in the previous loops?" "Did any previous loop leave a message for us?" "Can you deliver a message to the next loop?"

Finding some Jinki and Jinki:Extend manga at Bookoff tricked me into watching a few random episodes of the show again; it starts off sort of OK but it really is a mess.

Seeing the news that Stellvia got a blu-ray release in Japan made me watch the last 2 discs over again last night; It really is an enjoyable show once you get past Shima-chan's S-rank in crying over things.

[Buckeye]

Spice and Wolf II is up first for this season.

I just finished up with Spice and Wolf II. The same goodness that made Spice and Wolf continues along with this season, and is basically divided into two big stories: the pyrite arc and the fur trade arc. The show does a nice job of building up the relationship between Lawrence and Holo as it should, although it takes quite the unusual path to getting it to happen. The second season is a bit hard to understand what is going on since all of Lawrence's moves are not really explained in the clearest manner. But still, the result of everything is what makes this show so special.

Next up is Bakemonogatari. And as for new stuff this season, I have checked out Fate/Zero, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, and Chihayafuru at this point. I plan on continuing with Fate/Zero and Chihayafuru, while I plan on continuing Horizon once Sentai releases it as episode 3 onward is for subscribers only.

[FUNiOP]

Format mostly copied from Buckeye again.

All grades apply to only those episodes watched

Completed

Tiger & Bunny (14-25): B-
The second half of Tiger & Bunny is very much the same show as the first, but it introduces a lot of surprising events. Overall, I thought it was a little better than the first half. It seems like everyone either decided this series wasn't for them or thought it was the greatest contribution to anime in years, but I just thought it was alright. Sure, this kind of superhero show isn't very common in anime, but it keeps plenty of cliches from American superhero stories, which I never thought were very great overall anyway. After all, I probably wouldn't have become such a hardcore anime fan if I felt the American animation industry overall was comparable in terms of quality. There were plenty of times when I knew exactly what was going to happen, even when it was supposed to be a big twist, or when there was lazy writing and plot holes to try to make some exciting and satisfying things happen without thinking of a clever way to do it. I've never been a fan of the blatant CG in a 2D world that I don't feel it fits in very well, and some of the traditional animation seemed to get very lazy at times. However, the animation in the final fight caught me off guard with how fantastic it was. The final bit of the series in general seemed very exciting and fun, and didn't suffer from so much of what I found to be poor writing as the parts leading up to it did. It resolved the story in a very satisfying way, while still leaving room for a sequel, even seemingly counting on it, and it really was a fun ride all the way through, even if it wasn't perfect, or especially smart.

My Ordinary Life (14-26): B
The madness continues! I was surprised to see that the second half of the series with the most randomness and least plot continuity in recent memory actually changed things up a little for the second half and included a bit of an ongoing plot and some actual continuity. Since it's not like some great spoiler, I think it's same for me to say that the change for the second half (other than a new hyadain OP in very much the same style as the first and at least as mindbogglingly awesome and an ED that actually features a completely different song each time, all of them famous Japanese songs, it seems) is that Nano goes to school. This was something that people seemed to be greatly looking forward to, and for good reason. The two separate worlds were each fun on their own and had their own hilarious quirks, but bringing the two together really elevated this series to its absolute best. The interactions between all the characters who had previously never seen the other really kept the material fresh, especially when one side is comprised of human, but not necessarily "ordinary", characters, and the other side is comprised of a bizarre family of sorts with a more bizarre, and comically unrealistic, science fiction background. Every character has their own extreme quirks, and the situations tend to utilize each of these in tandem with each other perfectly. Kyoto Animation may not have even one anime every season, but when they do, goddamn they go all out. The animation in the really epic scenes, usually involving one of Mio's meltdowns, is just so gorgeous and only accentuates the absolute epicness of these scenes to bring them to a level I would have never expected from something like this. And almost every episode, especially later on, has one of those scenes. Near the end of the series, there starts to be ongoing stories stretched across longer periods of time, more of the vignettes start to connect more, there's a little bit of seriousness, and some nice, touching moments, while there is still plenty of attention closely paid to keeping the series all kinds of crazy fun each week. With a show like this, the finale isn't going to be very conclusive, since there was never any real plot leading up to it, but this one still managed to give a nice sense of closure, with plenty of touching moments and some noticeable character development and credit to all the events leading up to it. Of course, all things considered, the show isn't so much about a plot, or about character development, and only strikes a slight emotional chord a small handful of times over the entire series. It's more about being crazy and making you go "WTF am I watching?" and hopefully laugh some, although many of the laughs may be a part of the same reaction, with few if any coming from really clever comedic writing. So no, it's not a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it without needing to complain about much, even if it won't stick with me as much as a lot of other anime.

Hanasaku Iroha (14-26): B
This was another one that I thought was a bit overrated by those who followed it. Now don't get me wrong, I watched it every week, I thought it was consistently great, and that it got even greater in the later episodes and then maintained that level of quality right to the end. I just could never think of it as something that would enter my A range of grading. It tries for emotionally resonating drama featuring a wide range of beautifully designed characters, with enough clever humor and respect for the viewer's intelligence to keep things balanced. This sounds a lot like another anime-original series that started at the same time and has "Hana" in the title, Ano Hana. I think that's one of the best shows of the year, but I don't think HanaIro succeeds across the board quite like Ano Hana does. The emotion didn't feel quite as meaningful, when the biggest focus often involved the inn they worked at. Ohana and Minko especially seem to like yelling a lot without listening to anything that anyone else has to say, often about things that didn't seem extremely important, and unfortunately, that accounted for a lot of the series. The rest of the cast, especially the adults, have some conflicts that feel a little more important, or at least were generally handled with a little more humor, balancing it out a little. The series did a great job at letting all the minor characters have their own stories that revolved around them. Satsuki gets a few key episodes throughout the series, although she's rarely ever really the lead in them. Whenever she is around, she always adds lots of humor, and she's a very wise character while still being loads of fun. She also gets learns a lot and gets significant development over the course of the series, and while there were plenty of times that showed she wasn't quite as terrible a mother as Ohana may have made her out to be, she definitely ends up being a better mother by the end of it. Every character, group, set of interactions, etc. can lead to great comedy, and it's all very clever. The show is primarily a drama, and a lot about it wouldn't work as well if they spent too much time just on comedy, but I was always glad when they did spend some time just being funny, and it made for some of the most enjoyable parts of the series. The humor can be subtle but hilarious, and some of it would lose some of its quality if they tried to spell it out like many shows feel the need to. It assumes you're intelligent enough to get it, and that's greatly appreciated. And of course, even if there are long sequences of stubborn girls yelling at each other about stupid stuff and blocking out everything else, I can always just focus on artwork, character designs, backgrounds, animation, visual touches, etc. It's incredible how this series managed to go 26 episodes without ever looking anything but absolutely gorgeous. That says a lot for an anime for me, but I still can't ignore my problems with it. Fortunately, they're not so overwhelming that they ever killed my overall interest in the show, and overall it was really great, even if not quite the masterpiece I had hoped for, or that may other people found it to be.

Steins;Gate (13-24): A
And that grade might be too low. Yes, Steins;Gate is that good. Overall. And this is coming from someone who gave the first half a B (not even a B+), and thought that might have been too high at the time. So should I have given this an A+? Maybe, but I feel like A+ implies perfection, and this second half of Steins;Gate had some imperfections. I'm not going to hold the imperfections of the first half against it in this particular review, but they didn't completely go away, although everything about the series got much better. It went from a B (or lower) series to now being one of my top anime, and will probably only keep climbing higher as I think and write about and discuss it more and re-watch it and its "competition" on my list. It's definitely something that I respect even more the more I think about it. There's just so much to it. And the only negative things were things I picked up on right off. All along, they were drowned out by the incomparably higher number of positive things, and now I'm just thinking of more positive things I didn't think of before. Every week, as soon after the episode aired as possible, I would get on here and write my thoughts about that episode. And it would be longer than some of these full-cour reviews (which are already generally longer than I intended them to be). And it would never take much longer than 5 minutes. Because every episode just fills my mind with so much to think about, so many thoughts to let out, so many great things to praise, so many things to wonder about and speculate about. I can't remember the last time I've looked forward to a specific series each week this much. The cliffhangers were so intense and perfectly executed, and through every episode, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. The plot was so exciting, the suspense was thrilling, the style was fascinating, the humor was hilarious, it always knew when to be serious and when to be funny, it always knew to what degree each should be used, it always had the balance perfect so that nothing ever felt like they were forcing anything. The characters were likeable and interesting, and the small group of characters (the 9-ish leads are basically the entire cast for most of it) seemed to really help keeping the series from getting too overwhelming despite the extremely intense plot revolving around them. The animation was beautiful, the music was fitting, that OP is such a fantastic ear worm that I could probably spend a full day just listening to it on repeat (and the visuals that go along with it never get old or feel like they could have matched the music or the series any better). This White Fox studio is certainly giving themselves a good name with one of their first productions. I feel like I can't even say anything about what actually happens, since nearly everything from the beginning of the second cour to the end is one seamless event that has extreme spoilers all the way through. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't have watched this by now, but obviously I'm still not going to mention any of that. Just that it's done in a way that keeps the twists coming without ever making me raise an eyebrow at the plot. So what wasn't perfect about it? Well again, most of the (very minor) problems were only in the previous cour, but this did have a (very very minor) problem for me. It started showing its origins a little too strongly for my liking when several female characters started expressing their feelings for the male lead. It seemed a little sudden, and I didn't think the series up to that point had justified it well enough. Still, everything in those episodes was done well enough that it's hard for me to fault it too much for that. Also, the whole time travel thing still isn't perfect, but they did a damn good job, and really thought about it to provide a surprisingly intelligent take on it. And Dr. Pepper. Just thought I should mention that. So there you have it: Steins;Gate is fucking spectacular. I can't say that enough.

Blue Exorcist (13-25): B-
Aniplex continues to do the most they can to promote Blue Exorcist through its second cour, and they continue to give A-1 the money they need to keep it looking as good as it can look, and I greatly appreciate it. But now that the series is over, I can say without a doubt that it could never come anywhere close to being "the next FMA", no matter which FMA you're talking about. It's still good, just as the first cour was, but nothing special. In fact, I think the second cour dropped in quality a bit. Not as far as production values, but the actual content itself. This a case, like the first FMA, where the anime staff had to start adapting an existing property, then take the reigns themselves and continue the story on their own after passing the manga, since it's monthly and this is weekly. They even had to do it in half the time the FMA had, so it's a pretty even divide between the two cours as "the manga adaptation" and "the original story", although, like FMA, the former faded into the latter a little bit, with some alterations to existing manga incidents before going to fully original content. Comparing it to FMA this much makes me think that the whole "next FMA" thing is pretty true for the production model itself, just not the contents or quality of said contents. At all. But let's forget about that. It's a fine series on its own. It doesn't need to be compared to some of the greats of anime. Even if the second cour didn't seem quite as good as the first to me, it's still always impressive when a staff can take a situation like this, where they have to go from adapting to writing original stories, especially in such a short period of time, can pull it off to any extent, to make it flow and seem natural, and make it so you can't realize that was the case if you don't seek out that information elsewhere. The plot of Blue Exorcist, like many shonen manga, is clearly on a very grand scale, and the manga was almost definitely planned to go on for a very long run like most of its kind, so for the anime to have the amount of time that is meant for a story much shorter than these manga epics, especially spending half of it following the manga faithfully, then only having one cour to wrap everything up without any guidance, it's very difficult to give that a conclusive ending. Well, it wasn't entirely conclusive. There's clearly plenty of room for a second season. There's already a movie announced, and I'm guessing that's simply going to continue the story, because there's really plenty of things to do from here. After that, I can definitely see a second season somewhere down the line. I don't follow sales that much, but I think it's been selling well enough that it could be likely. Hopefully Aniplex decides that it was worth the investment. I'd definitely be up for a second season. Hopefully A-1 and the staff can keep it going and maybe hit their stride a little better than they have here, given a significant amount of more time with the series to themselves. We'll see how the movie goes whenever that comes out. Hopefully Aniplex will be as adamant about keeping a focus on Blue Exorcist in America, and we'll get to see it legally as quickly as possible. Now pretty soon I'll be getting their first DVD and starting to watch the series again. Yeah, it's not really all that great. But it was a lot better than it could have been in a lot of ways. So even if it doesn't necessarily deserve all this attention, I'm happy to reward it, since I know the second watch won't be a terrible experience.

Sacred Seven: D+
Welcome to possibly my biggest disappointment in I don't know how long. A new Sunrise original that seems to have some similarities with Code Geass, one of my favorites. Of course I was highly anticipating it. And I was very disappointed. The similarities to Code Geass ended up being about as much as I saw in the promotional material: a mecha of sorts that kind of looks like one of the mass-production (boring) Knightmare Frames (except it turns out to be much less of a mecha and much less interesting), and that the main character looks like he belongs in Code Geass, especially when he makes his angst face (which he has on for most of the time), except he looks much less interesting, and this is coming from someone whose biggest problem with Code Geass was CLAMP's character designs. Also, there's a maid army that's apparently ripped from some other property, and a butler who is pretty much Sebastian from Black Butler. They go through one cliche anime situation after another each week, always fitting in one fight with these rock things, but not getting anywhere with the plot or characters for the first while. Keep in mind this series is meant to contain the entire story and only has 12 episodes. Not the best idea to spend most of it fucking off in pointless-land, especially since they somehow manage to make even the most cliche situations more boring than usual. The gimmick for this show is a rock theme, since clearly there's nothing more interesting than rocks. The taller-than-anyone-else main character spends his free time searching through rocks in the river for reasons you find out later, and pointless schoolgirl character watches him and falls in love with him even though he's an asshole to everyone, especially her, and makes him join her rock club, where all the characters end up spending a lot of their time, doing exciting things like finding rocks, polishing rocks, looking at rocks, and talking about rocks. This one girl who made the main character (his name is Alma, if you care) join the club, is the president of it, and has an unnatural and unrealistic obsession with rocks, and there's nothing cute or interesting about it. And that's pretty much her entire character. Then there's the actual female lead and Alma's real love interest, the extremely rich owner of Sebastian (okay, his name's actually Kagami) and the maid army, who is of course nearly a dwarf, which fits perfectly considering how tall Alma is. She shows up to tell him that he has a power they need and the plot of the series that's like so many others, but with a rock theme, since that makes everything more interesting. Did I mention her talking rock companion? He makes random interjections, ending every sentence with "oni" and making those comical little things like sweat drops or anger marks appear, except they're actually tangible, and made of some kind of rock that crumbles into air after a second, which is bizarre and distracting and overused and never funny, much like his entire "character", if you can call him that. Eventually they get to some plot advancement, but it doesn't get any better, and the twists are never remotely surprising. It tries for some character development, and there are a few times where it really works, but for the most part I didn't care about anyone at the end of it. They're all boring and uninteresting, and there's nothing about the anime in general that will make me remember it as anything unique. It doesn't completely fail, though. The animation is always excellent, especially during the fights, which are all very well done, and sometimes involve actual thought. Still, the majority of this anime is a disappointing mess of generic tropes piled up with no competent execution in the writing or direction to pull it off. I need to stop following series all the way just because they're legally simulcasted originals by great studios that I was initially interested in.

Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth - The Animation: C
A little Japanese girl goes to France in the 19th century, meets some citizens, and they exchange nuances of their respective cultures. The girl, Yune, is very cute, and it's very interesting to see some of the cultural information that I wasn't familiar with, especially on the Japanese side, since (surprise!) I love that kind of stuff. But I couldn't really think of anything about this series that made me care too much about it. It's very calm and nothing ever really happens. I hesitate to call it boring since it's obviously a stylistic choice, and I think the creators know what they're doing with it, but I just couldn't get into it. It almost never made me think anything other than "Yune is cute" or "Japanese culture is fascinating", and it was hard to stay awake through it. I'm actually surprised that, as far as I can remember, I never actually did fall asleep during it. Actually, that's a little harsh, since I did genuinely care about at least a few characters, who I thought were written competently. I appreciated TAN simulcasting it for free to all members, though, since all their other simulcasts only show the first 2 episodes to free members. If it ends up getting dubbed and released on Blu-ray, I may buy it just to support that decision (even though I could just be spending that money on a subscription in the first place, but they've never simulcasted anything I really cared about, hence my little backwards support idea here). That's pretty much all I can think to say about this show.

Natsume Yūjin-Chō San: B+
The one shoujo anime I will always admit to loving. I loved Zoku, the second season, even though the original season didn't really do much for me, and at first this season didn't seem to quite match Zoku's quality, although it was still better than the first season. Then I remembered that Zoku was only that great when it introduced an ongoing plot, and about halfway through San, we returned to that, and things got much better than they had ever been before. This instantly shot San up to my favorite Natsume season yet, and one of my favorite new series this season. Most of it was typical Natsume one-offs, but those are still always great. This season had a strong focus on Takashi's life from when he was a little kid to the present, and on his current friends and the various levels of sixth sense characters have. Some aspect of this theme was very thoroughly explored in each of these episodes with that theme, and it was a little surprising to see that they kept coming back to relatively the same topic, but it made for a good theme, and even something as specific as that had plenty of stories to tell and different points to make, and no episode felt like it was just covering the same ground as another one. There was a surprising lack of Reiko's past, though, especially compared to previous installments in the series. After the couple of plot-progressive episodes in the middle, I was hoping the season would also end with two or three similarly-based episodes to really make for an exciting ending, but it ended up being mostly stand-alone episodes (there were a couple more that went together, but not related to an ongoing plot) for the rest of the season, and the finale itself was probably the most uneventful episode of at least this season of Natsume. However, it managed to provide a satisfying conclusion to the theme that had been focused on in the previous several episodes, and like pretty much all of the other episodes, was still pretty great. Plus, it ended with a message that they're already planning to take only this fall season off before they come back with a fourth season! That wait is 2 years less than the wait between Zoku and San! Hopefully the trend of each season becoming my favorite by the end of it continues and the fourth season, Shi, ends up being even better than San was. There's plenty of things I'd like to see in it, but I don't have to wait very long at all, so I'll just be patient and see what happens when the time comes.

Kamisama Dolls: C
DAT OP. God I love that OP. I wish the whole series was as good as it. Not that you can really compare the two, but the OP had such a great style, and the series itself doesn't seem to have much style at all. The story is interesting, and kept me watching the whole time, and I enjoyed it and didn't regret watching it, but it wasn't great. It just kind of moved the story along in an acceptable way, and occasionally got pretty exciting. The first episode doesn't do a very good job at making you care about the characters, and although there's certainly a change to that by the end, I never cared about them a great deal. There's one guy who seems like a character you'd never want to see again after the first episode, but as he appears more in later episodes, he soon becomes a much more sympathetic character, and in a flashback that was better than nearly anything in the present, you learn that he was kind of one of the most understandable characters all along, other than pretty much being a total sociopath. This flashback establishes a lot about the characters and what's brought them to be the people they are now. There are several women who range from mentally unstable to batshit crazy, to varying degrees of humor. The main character is basically a good guy without much in the way of defining qualities, and he's pretty naive. His love interest has a rack that implies she stepped out of High School of the Dead, and his little sister has a bit of a brother complex and so many crazy reaction faces they actually spend one of the little post-episode segments (which seem pretty damn annoying and pointless to me) acknowledging how many she had up to that point. She also seems to belong in a different anime, although I'm not sure which one. There's a touch of tired harem antics thrown in there, with 2 of the girls being in love with the bland male lead, and his little sister being jealous, but it's not much, the attraction of one of the girls is explained, and there's enough comedy surrounding those situations that I was alright with it. Nearly every "relationship" in the series (except the main one, I suppose) contains at least one person who's not all there, so it's pretty amusing (and/or disturbing). The kakashi, the eponymous mechanical dolls that are said to contain the soul of a god, despite being controlled by the human characters, get into some intense fights, usually when their controllers, the Seki, are verbally or mentally fighting with each other, and some of the conflicts are interesting. The animation is generally pretty good, but I feel like every character is off-model all the time. I get that a lot of it is for humorous purposes, but the faces they make look so weird so often that it kind of bugs me more than it makes me laugh (and no, I don't think the show ever actually made me laugh). The plot moves along at a fair pace, and the last few episodes, after the last main character is finally introduced, feature some good interactions and history and some fittingly good action. However, the last episode is basically just setting up for a second season the whole time. I don't know if they actually already have this all planned out, or if they're just hoping it sells well enough to warrant making more. If no more ever gets made, it's a pretty crappy way to end the series, but overall, it was alright.

Blood-C: D
I was initially on the fence about this. I liked Blood+, but I don't like CLAMP, so which way do I go? Well I saw the first episode get a perfect 5 out of 5 review on ANN, so I figured I'd go for it. The first episode was fine. It wasn't a 5 out of 5 episode, even without factoring in that the character designs were very CLAMP, which I don't like, but it was good enough for me to keep watching. But at some point in the series, I should have realized that it was a bad idea to keep watching. The next few episodes made the prospects of this becoming a good series less and less likely as each one did almost the exact same thing as each one before it. If there was any change, it was that the main character stands around and lets innocent people die before she decides to do anything. It's bad enough that they did this for so many episodes, but worse that it's only a 12-episode series, so those episodes that all did the same thing accounted for half the series. It finally got around to doing something different, but then got stuck in another formula, just with so much gratuitous violence, blood, gore, and brutal mass murder that they had to cover tons of footage with that nudity-censoring light. It's like Deadman Wonderland, where they seem to be getting off on how far they can push the violence, except without all the things that made Deadman Wonderland a decent show despite that. There's something clearly wrong with the human element here. The final couple of episodes finally reveal why that is, and it's somehow simultaneously a ridiculous twist and almost entirely predictable, but overall just a huge troll on the viewer. They draw this out for so long before actually revealing it that it stops being intense and just gets frustrating, and when they finally tell you, it's hard to care about it anymore. These last couple of episodes make sure you hate every character, but not in the good way you hate a villain; instead in a way that just makes you hate the writers for being so blatant and redundant in their utterly tactless portrayal of these hate-sponges they call characters. The final episode is everything that was wrong with the series turned up to 11: the trolling, the gore porn, the terrible characters and writing, the frustration I feel after not stopping myself in 12 episodes of this travesty. And it doesn't even try for any kind of conclusion, because you have to wait for the movie in 9 months for that! On the other hand, every second of it is animated absolutely gorgeously, which is even better if you happen to like CLAMP character designs or having countless people's entrails gushing onto your screen. This is especially true for the fight scenes, which not only get the extra benefit of such great animation, but have noticeably excellent choreography, and are therefore wonderful to watch. So it doesn't get a failing grade overall, but it sure as hell failed any expectations I may have had after starting it.

Cat God: D+
Another series I regret following all the way through, but at least I didn't have any expectations of this one. In fact, looking back, I can't imagine why I ever watched it in the first place. The character designs look really kiddy, and the synopsis makes it sound like a waste of 12 episodes. Maybe since I heard that it was seinen, and rated PG-13 on MAL, but didn't seem to have any trace of fanservice, I figured I'd see if ended up having any adult humor or something like that. As it turns out, it's a pretty harmless show. The characters are all somewhat chibi-like, some of them based on animals, there's less fanservice than a Shonen Jump series, and it's basically about the characters hanging out and enjoying themselves while making jokes that may occasionally induce a chuckle, but will certainly never offend anyone. I'm not sure why it's targeted to a seinen audience, but I'm not sure exactly who would get much out of this anyway. There is one male character who's in love with a female character and often fantasizes about her having some kind of wardrobe malfunction, but there's never really anything shown. There are a couple of other female characters who are in love with the female lead, but they don't seem to go into any further yuri territory than initially saying one of them will marry her and then fighting with each other. There's a beach episode, but it's not actually a beach episode at all, just a tease that ends up being a stage for the annoying guy with the fantasies, Gonta, to have annoying fantasies and be annoying in general. The most adult content is probably the relatively mature drama in the one episode that is surprisingly far better than any of the others, and probably the reason I kept going after considering dropping the series shortly before. It's an episode that focuses much less on the (already very light and not particularly funny) comedy and much more on drama, which is handled surprisingly well considering what the rest of the series is like. It focuses on the death of the parents of Yuzu, the object of Gonta's affection, and also features Mayu, the main character, at her best, in how she supports Yuzu and shows she's not completely worthless. Other than that, basically nothing happens. I gave that plot synopsis to illustrate how harmless the series is, but it also illustrates how boring it is. There's a bit of a plot at the end, but it's hard to care about it, as it somehow feels even less important than the characters lazing around playing retro games. It's actually pretty amusing to see gods collect money only to go and spend it on video games and screw off all day. Most of the episodes just have some cookie cutter plot without an interesting enough cast and setting to so much as fill in the outline given. You'd think that a cast full of gods could be a little more interesting. Also, the existence of Gonta tends to pull down the quality of any episode significantly. The more of him, the worse. His only purpose seems to be to distract from anything worth watching and be annoying, redundant, and predictable. The series would have been a lot better off without him. Despite the chibi-like character designs, I thought the animation was quite nice, and other than Gonta, there's not a whole lot to really hate here, but that's only because there's not much of anything.

The Mystic Archives of Dantalian: C
The last show of the season aired much later than everything else for some reason, and it was initially one of my most anticipated anime of the season, since we only get a cour or two of Gainax every year now, and this one-cour series is the single Gainax work in this entire year. It's actually been known about to some degree since before they even announced that the Gurren Lagann staff was getting back together for another original, which ended up being Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, which aired last year. They were hiring people who could design things like buildings, furniture, and cars for a new anime set in Britain in the beginning of the 20th century. Later it was revealed that this would be a more "refined" project, and based on the light novel series by the creator of Asura Cryin'. I never would have imagined either Gainax or the Asura Cryin' creator making something as refined as this. It's still a fantasy setting, unlike the similar Gosick earlier this year, and there's still more action than you'd expect from a story about books, but it's definitely a lot less crazy than most of the works of those two. Of course, being an adaptation, this is hardly a "Gainax show" like their originals, but you can definitely see that it's them in the animation, especially during certain action scenes. Unfortunately, this also resulted in what now seems like a trend, Gainax giving complete control of one episode of a series to the seemingly-infamous-by-now Osamu Kobayashi so he can Osamu Kobayashi the hell out of it. So one of the episodes is as ugly, out-of-place, and jarring as episode 4 of Gurren Lagann. Through the plot, they do give a reason for it and explain that it's a stylistic choice, but if an episode is too ugly to watch, I don't really give a shit. Fortunately, the rest of it looks great, so if there's one good thing about Gainax producing such a limited amount of content, it's that the stuff they do put out all gets the highest quality animation. Unfortunately, I did end up deciding it was a C show. Even though this is about as far from Asura Cryin' as I could imagine, the one thing they have in common is writing problems. Most of the series, despite all the fascinating premises and settings, focuses on a formula of how the main characters deal with Phantom Books, so after a few episodes, it just gets old. Some of them are too short and some of them are too long. Very rarely does anything actually add to the plot. This would be fine and the episodes could be treated as good or decent stand-alone stories, but the series is only 12 episodes long, and they try to fit an entire series worth of plot into the final episode with very little of the previous 11 episodes having anything to do with it. As a result, it just kinds of rushes through all the plot they were thinking of without really explaining anything, and then it's over. It could be Gainax that deserves more of the blame here, but I don't know what the original material is like. There should have been more to lead up to that ending, but it could have been there and just ignored in favor of random, formulaic one-offs. That would be pretty stupid, since given the choice, a little more balance seems like a much better way to go about making a series, and if they had to choose one, a more plot-focused series still seems like it would have to be better than this. Even so, the original story probably shouldn't have even had that many stories that basically go through the same motions every time. Fortunately, the main characters are very likeable and smart. The male is an adult who shows his maturity and the female is younger but very intelligent, and both of them are very quick-witted, rarely losing their head in an argument and instead calmly thinking of something clever to say. Even some of the minor recurring characters are similarly more clever than you might expect. One episode features another pair who are very different, but have a similar charm about them that keeps the episode fresh. The one with the crappy animation tries to focus on a one-off character for much of it, but it's thoroughly uninteresting, even ignoring the (impossible to ignore) animation. So it's a bit of a mixed bag despite its fairly repetitive nature. Some great stuff, some crappy stuff, and a lot of middling stuff. I had hoped for better, but it could have been worse.

Ongoing

Toriko (14-25): C
For a series I've continued to watch each week, there's really not much to say other than what I said for the first cour. It's very typical of its genre, and doesn't change much or do anything new and exciting, as will probably be true for its entire run, which may very well last forever. If nothing else, it's consistent, and consistently a C show. It's fun and has a fascinating setting, but the actual content just goes by the books using the trends that have been proven to work in this industry. One of those is due probably to making sure they can keep making episodes forever without running out of material to adapt, that being that everything drags on for way too long and just makes you wish they'd get it over with already. It's the one series I'll kind of set as something in the background, and I never really miss anything, since they'll make sure to build up the important stuff enough that you can be sure you'll catch it as long as you check in every now and then. So Toriko continues, and I continue to turn my mind off in order to find the intended enjoyment in it.

Gintama' (14-26): A-
After over 200 episodes of loving it, I can pretty much always count on Gintama to continue to be one of the best half-hours of anime in any given week, now that it's back on the air after being tragically absent for a year. This second cour of the second season was no exception. It didn't have a serious arc like the first cour (although the episode leading right out of the previous arc built up the potential for what could be the best yet), but the random comedy still had me on the floor clutching my sides from laughing so much nearly every episode. It continues to prove how to master the ability to switch from such comedy to a heartwarming conclusion with some simple wisdom that puts a smile on your face as you're wiping the last of the laughter-induced tears from your eyes. Gin himself is generally the vehicle of both sides of this seemingly schizophrenic but actually perfectly balanced combination of two very different methods of entertainment, and as such, he's consistently the most well-written and vital character to his show. Of course, he's nothing without the vast and colorful cast of characters that populate the world of Gintama, and its the way that everyone comes together to cross their quirky personalities in hilarious or at least very likeable interactions that really makes it great. A minor touch that I'm a big fan of is the ED of this cour featuring a rotating spot for something relevant to the episode, and often got another chuckle out of me during the ED, which isn't generally a part of the episode which that would happen in. Oh, and one of the episodes had a hilariously meta gag at the end of the OP that I loved so much. I guess I should mention that the last episode of the cour was a Sket Dance crossover. I was a little worried about this, since despite the similarities, Sket Dance isn't anywhere near as good as Gintama, but fortunately, it didn't bring it down nearly as much as I expected. It was still very much a Gintama episode, and just happened to feature characters from another series in a similar way to how they would parody other Jump series all the time. This also included significant changes to the OP, ED, eyecatches, and preview, and I really appreciated the extra effort that was put in for those nice touches. I'm alright with that not happening again, though. And hopefully this next cour will have some serious material, or some more-than-2-episode arc of some kind. This far into the series, it seems like 13 episodes shouldn't need to go by without anything out of the ordinary random comedy bits.

Sket Dance (14-26): C
That seems like a good lead-in to Sket Dance. Sket Dance also got an episode with a Gintama crossover, and yet here we are, still nowhere near the level of quality of Gintama. In my first review of Sket Dance, I'd say I'd try to stop comparing it to Gintama to try to appreciate it as its own series a little more, but that's not so easy when one of the episodes is all about Gintama and how Sket Dance bases their whole series on Gintama. Yeah, they just go ahead and admit it right in the episode. Each crossover picks at the flaws of its respective series, but while in the Gintama one I just thought "oh Gintama, you're even clever about picking on yourself", in the Sket Dance one I thought something more like "yeah, that's totally true, how can you just acknowledge that instead of trying to fix it since you obviously realize it?" What Sket Dance said about itself basically boils down to being based on Gintama, but changing everything that makes Gintama so great into things that they have nothing good to say about. And I pretty much agree. So having it brought to light didn't make it any better for me, it just made me more frustrated that they made it that way and have no shame about it. Also, since the two anime are made by different studios (kind of surprising, considering the crossover was in the manga, and thus you'd think they would have planned for it by having Sunrise animate this), and you can really notice how off-model Gin and to a lesser extent Shinpachi and Kagura are when they enter the Sket Dance world. The Sket-dan also looked different in the Gintama episode, but I just thought they looked much better in Sunrise's Gintama style, so that didn't bother me. Fortunately, the Sket Dance creator (who unsurprisingly worked as an assistant to Sorachi for the Gintama manga) definitely gets Gintama, and while I'm not sure if any of the staff crossed over for these episodes, the Odd Jobs trio were very much in-character in this foreign world, so it really did make the episode one of Sket Dance's best. Gin and one of the main Sket-dan trio, Switch, share the same seiyuu, and Gintama's second lead, Shinpachi, shares the same seiyuu with a less major Sket Dance character, and that was also brought up here. Actually, the Gintama episode brought it up, too, but it was subtle enough that you had to already know that in order to get it, while in Sket Dance, they just yelled it at you. That's kind of the difference in their comedy styles, honestly. The changes to the OP, ED, eyecatches, and (not so much) preview were much more minor here (well, the eyecatch is only a second anyway, so I guess that was just as changed), but there were still some changes that made me smile (if you didn't catch the extremely minor change in the OP, Switch puts on a mask of Gin instead of some anime girl in that one-second background scene). The first two episodes of the cour were about music, and I'm a sucker for that. They had a particularly strong focus on the Pillows, who were one of the only reasons I kept watching it in the first place. After these episodes, they change the OP and ED, and although that surprisingly meant the end of that Pillows ED, the songs were by a seemingly new band created for the music episodes and those songs, and the OP matched their performance in the previous episode, which I liked a lot. I really like those songs in general, even if it's too bad to not have the Pillows every week. Then there were like 8 and a half episodes of everything I don't like about Sket Dance, little that I like, and little that's new. Even with the music and Gintama episodes, that long span of bad episodes would have dropped this cour down a grade or so, if it weren't for the last episode and a half before the Gintama one, which featured Switch's backstory. While the presence of Gintama characters may have made the crossover episode better than any episode solely featuring the cast of Sket Dance, this story was definitely way better than I expected Sket Dance could deliver without some element that I'm a sucker for, like music or Gintama. Okay, Sket Dance, maybe you should just try becoming a drama. The best parts of the music episodes other than the music itself was the drama, too, not the comedy. The comedy has never been very good, other than when the Gintama characters delivered their signature comedy, yet that's what the series focuses on. Except here. Honestly, while the backstory itself was great, it kind of had the opposite lasting effect of what a backstory should. Now that I've seen Switch's tragic and touching past, it's hard to see him as this completely goofy comedic relief character. Anyway, that's Sket Dance, in far more words than it deserves.

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan: Demon Capital (1-13): B
I've mostly heard negative feedback for this series as a whole, and having watched the first season, I felt that it was mostly justified, although not nearly as much as most people. However, I was told that the second season was going to be given to almost entirely new staff and and was going to adapt some much better manga material, and was supposed to do a much better job at it apparently. Well like I said, I didn't hate the first season as much as most people seemed to, but this second season was definitely way better in almost every way. I could immediately tell that it was directed and written much better, and didn't have much filler or other pointless crap, but the material itself was also much better. This season has almost nothing to do with Nura's classmates, and instead goes much deeper into the very dangerous side of the yokai world, and Nura has to really grow into his position to lead his forces in this grand war. And he does. Nura is in his yokai form for almost the entire series so far, which is great, because his human form is pretty much just an annoying little kid (although not nearly as bad as most of his classmates), and his yokai form is a really awesome badass who was a great treat in his much-too-limited screen time in the first season. In this form, Nura has to go through some extreme training to better his abilities, and meets a new group of yokai who are all very competent and likeable, more than most of the Nura clan. And even though Nura is in a much better form here, it's nice to see a bunch of yokai who don't give a damn that he's the heir to the greatest yokai army of all time, and just treat him like a newbie who needs to work himself to the bone to get the results he wants. This makes for a lot of development for Nura, both in terms of his abilities and his personality. In his demon form, he's always acted like he could do anything, since appearing in that form basically meant an instant victory before this point, but he learns a good amount of humility here, just not enough to keep him from generally being cool and confident. However, the real battle eventually kicks off, and while Nura himself is finally on the front lines all the time, he sees that he'll still have to work hard if he hopes to win. It's pretty exciting. Of course, it's still not a great show. Even with a different staff, this is still clearly the second season of a mediocre series, and in order to keep things consistent, and obviously to remain faithful to the manga, they can't just try to get around a lot of what made the first season generally disliked. The plot is interesting enough to follow if you're a fan of these kinds of long-running shonen action manga adaptations, but it sticks very closely to its genre, never failing to use the standard tropes and never taking the risk of going out of its comfort zone to really try something new and exciting, and like most of its kind, moves pretty slowly, probably to keep the manga ahead. The animation remains fine but not great (although I didn't watch it in 720p). So it's definitely as good as I could hope for Nura to be, but that's still not saying too much.

Dropped

Yuruyuri (1-2): C+
Honestly not that bad a show. Better than some of the ones I followed. I just knew that this isn't my kind of show. I'm not a fan of "cute girls doing cute things" or yuri for the sake of yuri, and this show didn't seem to have much more to it than those things from the few episodes I checked out. I appreciate that it seemed relatively well done, and that a good number of people seemed to really love it, but it wasn't for me. It didn't seem like it was particularly great either, though, just depending on its audience's love of its themes, but it could have been worse considering that's all it was made for.

Morita-san wa Mukuchi (1): D
Okay, I better not have much to say about a single three-minute episode in which nothing happens and I found nothing entertaining about. The protagonist doesn't talk but her friends talk a lot and she looks people in the eye when they're talking in a creepy way. That's it. There's nothing to it. I can't think of this as entertainment. At least it's only for three minutes, so it's not like having to sit through a full-length episode, and it's entirely innocent and harmless, but based on the first one, I can't imagine what the point of making it was.

The IDOLM@STER (1): C-
I hate to say this after seeing how highly graded this has been by some, but I really couldn't get much out of this episode. Here are a dozen or more girls who all have to be introduced in one episode, leaving an average time of a couple minutes or less each. Fortunately, it gets around spending any time on a plot by using the gimmick of a series of fake interviews with all the girls, from the perspective of the cameraman, and 2 minutes is plenty of time to show which girl has which physical trait and which quirk. With that many girls, they can cover pretty much all the big ones that people get "moe" for. This singular aspect of each character seems to be passed off as their "personality", but if they're trying to become idols (which they can only do with your help, barely-existing stand-in for the player!), having a real personality isn't very important. The animation is good, though, and some people seem to love the series. It definitely knows its audience, and I'd guess each episode for the rest of the series fleshes out one of the girls, so it's just that the first episode had the unfortunate task of throwing them all into one. I could see how even the style of this episode could be appealing, though. It is honestly kind of a clever way to do it, even if I couldn't stand it. Anyway, even if I was sure the rest of the episodes would be better than the first, I couldn't bring myself to follow it, and even assuming the series does exactly what I think it might, which would appeal to its audience, I'm not that audience, and I have no interest in it.

A Dark Rabbit Has Seven Lives (1): D+
I guess this show's selling point is fanservice, because take that away and all you've got is what seems like something that was made as a result of the creators trying to think up every trope they could and then slap them all together in some mess that makes no sense and feels very awkward. These things have all worked before, right? Yes, but that's because they've had other things to go on, and didn't try to fit in so many at once. And a lot of times, they don't work, because they're just being thrown in, like this. It's not the worst attempt, and the scene of the main character realizing he's still alive and well despite literally losing his head to an oncoming truck was mildly amusing, but overall this seems like a bunch of ideas that have been done to death and a plot that wasn't thought out very thoroughly, and they didn't seem to feel the need to make any of the characters remotely likeable or interesting. I could see it becoming a fun ride if never particularly good, but this episode didn't give me any reason to think I should stick around and see. If you're looking for fanservice, this seems like a reliable source of it in an alright looking (nothing special but the colors are nice) show. That doesn't keep me watching a show either, though.

R-15 (1): D+
There's a lot wrong with this one. The plot is stupid, yes, but most of the problems don't stem from it. Nearly every part of the execution screws everything up. In case you didn't know, it's about a "genius" teen porn author, and after spending the episode fantasizing about girls doing erotic things and writing them down with a hand that moves on its own, he sees one girl who causes him to write non-porn. All the scenes kind of rush along and never seem to have any point. He complains about girls finding him weird, but when you spend your time lustfully looking at them and writing porn about them, it's kind of justified. The determining factor for the single personality trait for the characters in this show is whatever they're a "genius" at, and none of them break the pattern. The animation is all very lazy, the voice acting is done by almost entirely newbies and it shows, and anything kind of like fanservice causes a blinding light to cover the screen. So even watching it for that is pointless, until the BD/DVD of course. The plot could lead to an amusing if entirely stupid series, and like with the other "here's a ton of girls and she does this and she does this..." show I couldn't watch more than an episode of this season, I imagine future episodes would give each one the time they deserve. It just all felt so rushed together in this one, and I couldn't find any reason to think I'd enjoy the rest of it enough to continue watching.

Dropped on Me (by TAN since I'm a free member)

Ro-Kyu-Bu! (1-2): C-
That's not to say I would have necessarily kept with it anyway. But who knows? It wasn't that bad. I'm not a sports person and I don't care much for series that focus on cute lolis doing some specific thing, especially when I'm not interested in the thing they're doing to begin with, but it did seem to show a little heart and character development, mostly in that second episode, that made me wonder if maybe it would have gotten any better. I'm sure it never would have turned into anything I thought too highly of, since it kind of fit a stereotype that I've never been a fan of. In other words, I won't be buying it.

Heaven's Memo Pad (1-2): C+
A NEET loli detective who helps people and commands a group of proud NEETS who each have a very specific and pronounced quirk who help her causes while she basically just stays in her room, and some main character who makes a point of telling us how bland he is (points for honesty in something that's true of far too many anime protagonists?) for the entire first episode (which is a double-long episode), then gets caught up in the antics of this group (duh!) and ends up being a new member of sorts. Interesting? Maybe that's word I'm looking for? Honestly, I wasn't too thrilled with this premise. And I still don't understand how these people are NEETS when they clearly dedicate their lives to doing this job, although I guess it's due to the lack of monetary compensation. Watching the episodes themselves (actually 3 standard episodes, going by running time) didn't exactly knock me off my feet or even really change my opinion of the premise, but I guess it did still have me interested. This is often compared to Gosick, which didn't start out as anything special, but I think I liked its first 2 episodes better than these. Anyway, that's all I saw. There's not much more I can think to say about it. I probably won't buy it.

[EmperorBrandon]

The season is underway, and I've tried out several shows. Not going to do my usual big Mania/FP thoughts post just yet, as I'm holding out until the fourth episode on any series without an official simulcast announcement yet (only making an exception for Tamayura). So far, my favorites are (as expected) Tamayura: Hitotose, and Shinryaku!? Ikamusume. Chihayafuru would be one that shows some promise from the first episode after having no expectations beforehand. I'm decently enjoying and will likely keep up with Working'!! and Persona 4. I was a bit unsure if I'd be in for the HxH remake in the long haul, but I think I will. Fate/Zero and Majikoi are interesting enough for me to continue. Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere and You and Me are looking like probable drops. Going to give both of them a second episode, though, but with their first episodes the former annoyed me and the latter bored me.

I've been watching some older stuff, though, and I wanted to get to my thoughts on that in the mean time:

Hidamari Sketch (12 + 2 specials)
Just marathoned through this the past few days, with it all being available for me to watch on The Anime Network Online right now. I stopped watching this the first time through about halfway through way back when the series was first airing (probably episode 6, as that was the last one I remembered stuff from). I do remember being somewhat bored with it first time through, though I don't really think I disliked the series. May have been laziness more than anything else why I didn't watch more, though it's hard for me to say. Seeing it again, there does seem to be quite a bit of dull moments in the first few episodes. The characters are all pretty fun and interesting from the start, but it still feels like a little bit of a chore. For whatever reason, though, it starts to feel like less of that after a few episodes and mostly great fun with the characters. I have to wonder if it actually did get less slow and more interesting, or if I'm just more used to and into it after a few episodes anyway. Regardless, it's good stuff and I've laughed quite a bit over the last few days with it. Maybe not one of my highest favorite among the "cute girl slice-of-life" type series, and I'm not really rushing to buy DVD's, but I do feel I want to catch all the way up on this, in time for the fourth series when it comes along.

Victorian Romance Emma (6)
I think I was really very surprised by this series. I knew it tends to get a lot of praise, so I was expecting something good, but I guess I just wasn't really expecting the premise to interest me too much. It really does, though, particularly with all of the very wonderful character interactions. I'm looking forward to watching more.

[pianocello]

Currently watching (episodes watched up to in brackets):

Outstanding
Yuruyuri (finished)
I would have prefered better character development but for the most part, this fulfilled my yuri needs. Now to wait for the doujinshi and the 2nd season.


Mayo Chiki!
I have heard of this being described as a generic ecchi harem show so I am quite surprised that I liked this much. Maybe it is the fact that the leads have quite good chemistry and I like the female lead when she's all dere.

Very Good
Usagi Drop (7)
This is an educational guide to parenting.

Good
Nekogami Yaoyorozu (2)
While still okay, ep 2 was a bit of a downer. Needs more yuri and better character development.

Average
R-15 (2)
Some people are making this out to be the stinker of the season. While not really something great, it does have its amusing moments. Biggest downer for me is the rather bland female lead.

Sacred Seven (2)
Okay I guess. Great female characters.

Ro-Kyu-Bu! (2)
It does have potential to have heart but I can't stand the character designs with the oversized heads and eyes and squeaky high-pitched voices.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel (2)
Episode 2 confirms that this is watered-down from the more superior OAV. I'm just watching this for Aoi's boobs and the yuri aura from her.

Blade (2)
Crappy animation but the story looks like it might go somewhere.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee (3)
I do need to catch up with this but the snooze-like pace isn't very inviting.

Tiger and Bunny (2)
Too campy and the father-daughter relationship has the potential to be annoying.

Below Average
Steins, Gate (2)
The male lead is really annoying and the show is starting to bore me.

Hanasaku Iroha (1)
Initially with the peppy female lead and the decent animation quality, I was optimistic. Then it proceeds to go to hell with the show determined to make life hell for the female lead. It might still become good since shows which initially was determined to make life miserable for the female lead like Nijuu Mensou Musume and Daphne in the Brilliant Blue turned out excellent. But for now, this first episode was like an unpleasantly forced anal probe.

Nichijou (0)
This was like a bad episode of Lucky Star (which I really hate). Totally unfunny and takes too long to reach the punchline. Only thing interesting is the Azumanga Daioh-ish character designs.

Awful
None

[DataDogEin]

Watched the first episode of Shana III; now the weekly wait between episodes is going to be a killer!

Keeping up with Ika Musume, which continues to be a lot of fun.

Saved some braincells and decided to skip to the last two iterations of Haruhi's Endless Eight; ha ha, it *would* turn out to be something like that keeping them in the loop. Overall, this season was kind of meh. Maybe I would have felt differently watching it "integrated" with the first season the way it was aired in 2009. Not even the talking cat saved it. I really didn't care for the obvious K-On-styled character art changes either; IMO it pretty much just made Haruhi look off-model during those episodes. Maybe Itsuki really should have just let Kyon slap Haruhi. So I'm kinda burnt out on Haruhi again, maybe it's a good thing Netflix doesn't have the movie yet.

No real further progress on old shows. Watched a little more Macross 7; I'm now at 20+, Sound Force got established and the animation quality picked up a bit but I'm still not motivated. Thinking of checking out Viper's Creed on Hulu/Crackle and the simulcast of Guilty Crown and restarting Kurokami on Bandai's Youtube channel if it's still available.

[EmperorBrandon]

Hanasaku Iroha (1)
Initially with the peppy female lead and the decent animation quality, I was optimistic. Then it proceeds to go to hell with the show determined to make life hell for the female lead. It might still become good since shows which initially was determined to make life miserable for the female lead like Nijuu Mensou Musume and Daphne in the Brilliant Blue turned out excellent. But for now, this first episode was like an unpleasantly forced anal probe.

Uhh... yeah, keep watching. The point of the show is definitely not making Ohana miserable. Get to episode 3 at the very least. :bigsmile:

Steins;Gate takes a while to get going but once it does it's really interesting, and the early stuff is still particularly important.

[Fencedude]

Steins, Gate (2)
The male lead is really annoying

*gasp*

How dare you speak that way of MAD SCIENTIST HOUOUIN KYOUMA!?

[EmperorBrandon]

Hidamari Sketch (12 + 2 specials)
Just marathoned through this the past few days, with it all being available for me to watch on The Anime Network Online right now. I stopped watching this the first time through about halfway through way back when the series was first airing (probably episode 6, as that was the last one I remembered stuff from). I do remember being somewhat bored with it first time through, though I don't really think I disliked the series. May have been laziness more than anything else why I didn't watch more, though it's hard for me to say. Seeing it again, there does seem to be quite a bit of dull moments in the first few episodes. The characters are all pretty fun and interesting from the start, but it still feels like a little bit of a chore. For whatever reason, though, it starts to feel like less of that after a few episodes and mostly great fun with the characters. I have to wonder if it actually did get less slow and more interesting, or if I'm just more used to and into it after a few episodes anyway. Regardless, it's good stuff and I've laughed quite a bit over the last few days with it. Maybe not one of my highest favorite among the "cute girl slice-of-life" type series, and I'm not really rushing to buy DVD's, but I do feel I want to catch all the way up on this, in time for the fourth series when it comes along.

Ok... gotten right on into three episode of Hidamari Sketch × 365, and wow, is it just me, or does the series suddenly seem twice as good instantly upon starting? Wondered if it was just an amazing opening episode (really loved getting to see the backstory with Yuno being introduced Yamabuki and Hidamari), but it's really keeping up watching more too (had a soft spot for the sweet scene with the little girl impressed with Yuno's drawing). Seems that the staff is really more focused on the kind of thing I like with the series this time around, anyway, not that the first series didn't have stuff like this that I enjoyed.

[Suwako Moriya]

~Started Before Autumn~

Suite Precure (35)

Series continues to be fun even if it has some of the pacing issues that can be expected from a four cour series. Still what matters is that Muse is now confirmed as my favorite of the Cures so far. Watch as far as I have and you'll know why.

Idolm@ster (15)

So we're in the second cour and so far it's proving to be great. The most recent episode showed just how fun a large cast can be when used right. That may be the show's best strength.

Even better while the focus is not exactly even (trying to be can backfire anyway), it at least does better than some shows. You know where you have like a dozen characters, but only three appear regulary and half of them appear on rare occasions.

Jewel Pet Sunshine (20+)

Hmm, maybe I should just focus on re-watching earlier episodes. In any case, so long as you don't have an auto-hatred for cute creatures this series is pretty fun. Although I mainly watch for the girls.

Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream (15)

The show does have a few minor issues. Minor for me anyway. However I continue to love it due to the interactions of the main trio. Now if only I could tricks others into worshiping Aira, Rhythm, and Mion. Ah, well.

~Started in Autumn~

Kimi to Boku (2)

It took two episodes to be sure, but I have a definite reason to keep watching this. The reason being called Masaki. Plus, the interaction between the guys could have some potential. If I had to pick a favorite among the four of them, I might lean towards Shun. Not sure if this series will end up being gold, but it looks like it could be an easy side watch.

Persona 4 (1)

A pretty decent start to the series and I do like Chie and Yukiko already. I should note that for now I am coming from the perspective of one who hasn't really played the game. The chances of me getting to the game before the anime finishes airing are slim.

Guilty Crown (1)

The first episode flowed pretty well, and there is some potential. However it will take a couple more episodes to get a feel for it. My main worry is they'll beat a certain aspect into the ground. Hint, it's related to the villains.

Phi Brain (3)

I've come to a simple conclusion. So long as I pretend the "puzzle" stuff is supposed to be ridiculous then the show sort of works on a curiosity level. That being said, I'm undecided yet if I'll stick with this long term.

I guess it depends on this as well. Is this going to just be a cour or two? Or are they planning for some type of endless series?


Maji De Watashi ni Koishinasai! (2)

The first episode was a bit crazy and the second episode felt like it was wasting time until near the end. Even so it did show potential for the primary girls. Plus, the third episode was fun. So, yeah this series can work.


Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon (3)

After a somewhat frantic first episode, the series seems to have settled into a reasonable pace. Right now, it feels like they're setting things up and letting us get to slowly learn about things. This has definite potential.

The problem? Will it even get enough seasons to actualy realize that potential? Here's hoping we can at least get a decent cut-off point with this series.

C3 (3)

The setting for the series has potential to be quite strong. Assuming they don't make the mistake of becoming too heavy handed. For now the series is turning out to be err interesting.


Mashiro Iro Symphony (2)

I was a bit bothered by the second episode driving "that" into the ground, but over all this looks it wil be a decently enjoyable series. I wonder how the character episodes will turn out.

Shinryaku!? Ika Musume (4)

It's so nice for the invasion to continue. Doesn't feel much different from the first season and that's for the best. Don't want to ruin a good thing do we?

Ben-To (2)

Sure the premise is silly. However it's also turning out to be a rather fun series. Plus, Sen is delicious. I just had to say it because err I'm evil like that. In any case, it will be fun to see if they can keep it viable long term.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (2)

Wow! This show is awesome. A male lead that's actually quite decent and two female leads that are amazing. Plus, as seen by the opening, the promise of more girls to come. What's not to love?

Of the shows that are not continuations, this could end up being my favorite series of the season. Just the interaction of Sena and Yozora alone helps a lot.

Working'!! (3)

This series is definitely working for me. Sorry, I had to say that. In any case, more quality time spent with Popura is great. So many decent characters at the restaurant and I'm even including the guys this time.

On top of that our male lead has four sisters. All of which add value to the series. Although clearly for me Izumi and Nazuna add the most value. No prizes for guessing why.

Side note, Popura being 17 years old and short attracts me. Yet at the same time Nazuna being 12 (?) and tall attracts me. This almost sounds contradictory.

Tamayura ~hitotose~ (3)

So question of the day. How do you take a wonderful OVA series that was four short episodes and make it even better? By making a wonderful TV series that will have a cour worth of episodes. One that expands on the OVA you've already seen.

I think this is by far my favorite series of the season. It also needs to be added to my top ten most wanted license list badly. Which means I'm going to have to actually remove a title. Darn it, that's always the problem.

Sad that with so many series being picked up, no one seems to be thinking of licensing or streaming this one. Darn it, mnore need to see this.

Maken-Ki (2) (Dropped)

Well, the male lead did a pretty good job of making me hate them. The character designs did a pretty nice job of being over all bleh. The designs are also dedicated to the idiotic strategy of "Screw the idea of decent design, just make the breasts larger". It also knows how to rely on forced fanservice and abuse the panty cam.

See? I can be positive about this show! In all seriousness, the experience was quite painful. I can't even watch it for the eye candy value due to the designs. I gave it one more chance, but it failed that chance by just making it clear of the suffering that lies ahead. This is my first official drop of the season.
---------------------------------------

There are series left to try, but this should be a decent start. Some series I'll probably pass on trying entirely. Which is to be expected. Still it's just a matter of sorting out on my feelings on the rest and finding the right motivation.

[Buckeye]

I said my reviews would come last week, but I got way too sidetracked and was quite busy. Anyway, I finished writing and evaluating everything I watched from the summer season, and I must say that the lineup for the summer season was quite disappointing as far as new stuff goes. I was planning to check out more of those stuff, but I had too many issues with my internet connection that have since been mostly resolved (Hulu and Nico Nico streams were fine, but Crunchyroll streams would often freeze or drag). As usual, I give out letter grades, and they pertain to only the episodes watched unless my thoughts of these episodes diverge greatly from my thoughts of the show as a whole. Once again, the shows are divided into sections that are pretty self-explanatory, and I prefer to use "On Hold" rather than "Dropped" for shows I have started with no immediate plans to continue watch since there is a chance I might re-visit them later if I feel like it. That said, I present my reviews of the anime I watched this season.

Completed

[IKA] Squid Girl: B+
Very funny show and a nice series to watch. It is a bunch of stories in regards to the antics of the squid girl, a squid that has taken the form of a girl and is on a conquest to invade humanity for polluting the sea. It is really hilarious and watching all those crazy characters do crazy things makes this show nice to watch. I plan to get to the second season, but not right now as my fall season is already overloaded.

[KGI] Kannagi: B
I had been meaning to watch this show for awhile ever since it was licensed two years ago. Let's say that it has all the goodness of Yutaka Yamamoto in it without the over-the-top craziness like what is seen in MHS and Lucky Star. At the same time, the lack of over-the-top craziness did not exactly do the shows many favors with me. But it was a nice story about how Jun gets through life living with Nagi. The story is pretty down to earth, which allows good character development.

[HSK] Hidamari Sketch: B
The artwork is great and certainly, it has a great foundation. The one thing that makes this show great is that the characters are rarely seen in school. I find these types of slice-of-life shows that spend too much time in school not as interesting. In this show, most of the story takes place at the Hidamari Apartments. After all, this show is called Hidamari Sketch and not Yamabuki Sketch for a reason. After watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica, it was nice to see so much similarity in the characters between that show and this.

[HSK-2] Hidamari Sketch x 365: B
Of the three seasons, I find this season to be the least enjoyable since it's more of the same and some of the stuff gets too old. It jumps around too much that it becomes hard to follow. But it's still all good.

[HSK-3] Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu: B+
This is the best season of the Hidamari Sketch series. First of all, it includes Nori and Nazuna and this season does a very nice job of breaking these freshmen into the story. The way these girls interact always makes this show so nice to watch.

[BTS] Baka and Test: B-
This show was just off-the-charts funny, and that is what makes this show what it is. Forget about everything else, and just focus on working out those laughs and you have Baka and Test. Other than that, there is not much else this show has to offer unless you like those summoner wars. What makes this show so great is that unlike other types of shows, the focus is on the boys rather than the girls (and that includes the one boy who looks like a girl). The one big flaw with this show is that avatar battles are supposed to be the focal point, but we only see them happening in a few episodes. Certainly, the structure could have been improved, especially since some of the episodes could have been taken out to have more summoner wars instead. I look forward to watching the second season as soon as Funimation releases it.

[DOG] Dog Days: C
If I wanted to watch something solely for moe, this show would be it. The characters are what make this show great. As for the story itself, it's pretty cliched and follows the same formula as several other shows of its kind. The ending just seems to be way to convenient and if you watched this show, you know what I mean. That said, I really loved the characters in this show, especially Millhiore. Then the story concept is interesting enough with Flonyard wars being athletic competitions rather than real conquests. With a second season imminent that I look forward to watching it. With the way season 1 ended, having a second season would be a great thing.

[UTK] Uta Kata: B+
Here we have a magical girl anime where the magical girl powers are actually a test, one where your personal assistant is not exactly what she seems to be. Then there are the emotional issues about having the powers that will steer you towards making a fateful decision one way or the other. That makes this magical girl show different in a great way.

[YSR] Yosuga no Sora: F
Ugh! Where do I begin with this show? Let's just say I had an extremely tough time watching this and trying to make it through this series was painful. It got way too sexual to the point that it becomes a much bigger distraction than it should have been. I understand it is based on an adult visual novel, but at least such shows do not go this far that it becomes problematic. Then the story just keep jumping around from place to place, and it seems like Haru is quite the womanizer I would love to punch in the face. Whatever good that happens in this show gets interrupted either by a sexual moment or Haru's personality. Easily one of the worst shows that I managed to see through to the end.

[SHF] Shuffle: C-
I have been meaning to watch this series, and my viewpoints about this show are quite mixed. For the most part, this show was quite enjoyable. There was a good storyline for each girl and that Rin made a solid choice at the end (there was one girl I absolutely did not want him to be with and certainly it's a great thing he did not choose her). The biggest problem? It's just another harem. It falls into the same traps that makes harems not so good.

[TBY] Tiger and Bunny (13-end): B+
This show has been a solid piece of work that will undoubtedly have me coming back for more if a second season is coming as rumored. The storylines were great and each episode had me on the edge of my seat wanting for more. That's what's great about this show. What could have been better is would be a more complex storyline that a show like this is capable of achieving. Everything just seems too simple on the surface, which is what separates this title from the elite titles. But its innovative concept is what makes this show so fun to watch.

[FMA-B] Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (51-end): A+
Wow! Just when I though FMA could not get any better, this show just blew everything out of proportion. Everything about this series as a whole is just nothing but the soul of the artist all drawn up telling a story that is as complete as it gets. To be given 64 episodes to animate everything in this great piece of work is a testament to that. Anyway, this is one of the best anime series ever as now, it tells an epic story and these final episodes are nothing short of amazing. As for the content covering the final episodes of this series, I must say that these were well-written and the animators put an awful lot of soul into making the show's conclusion everything it ought to be.

[SUZ] Suzuka: C-
I thought about dropping this seeing how it starts off being too much like all the bad aspects of Love Hina. But it develops into a decent story that has been animated thousands of times by now: dense boy has a crush on a girl, but is too afraid to confess and acts recklessly to try to win her over. This show does a great job of making the characters down to earth even with their talents. But at the same time, this show brings not much to the table that I have not seen before. So I will leave it at that.

[BMD] Bibliotheca Mystica Dantalian: C+
First the bad: there is seemingly not much in the way of a plot. I know that this is episodic, but the fact that for a show like this, there is not much of an overall plotline when there should be one. Not necessarily the worst thing, but this show could have been something nice if it did. Certainly, the series ended on a whimper since there was almost no buildup towards the final episode and when it came along, too much was thrown at the viewer that so many things remain unresolved. Now the good: the characters. Huey and Dalian are both great characters with a mission, and Dalian has quite the personality with her tsundere behavior and appetite. Not to mention, Huey is a down-to-earth guy that makes an ideal lead. The episodes themselves are nice and it reminds me a lot of Kino's Journey. At least the structure in Kino's Journey allowed its episodic nature to work. But not so much for this show, at least not after the first six or so episodes. What went in to every episode is nice. What came out of it, however, is an entirely different story at that. I will say that it started off nicely, but then things go astray on its episodic stuff.

Ongoing

[DRR] Durarara (1-12): A-
I'm currently watching this on Adult Swim, and it is a great show to watch. But the first half has things all over the place that it is sort of hard to connect the dots. Once everything got sorted, this show starts telling multiple stories well as it gets to the point where the story about a young man looking for excitement and a woman looking for her head cross paths. At this point, it is all about trying to connect the dots. I can't wait to see what happens.

[BLE] Bleach (204-220): B-
With these episodes, the show enters the fake Karakura Town arc. But before it gets there, we have more filler with Rurichiyo and her desire to hold a kemari tournament. The timing of those two episodes are what made this fail. Next, there is the history of Urahara and the Vizards. It was quite an informative set of episodes, though I felt that it could have been told much quicker. Then it gets to the showdown at the fake Karakura town. Here, this show sees the squad lieutenants battling out the Fracciones to protect Karakura Town. With these episodes, we really get to know more about these lieutenants and why they rarely use their Bankai. As for that part, I feel like I am getting the same story over and over again. But I am at the part where the master of these Fracciones will come out and fight.

[PKM-BW] Pokemon Black and White (22-35): C
After a rough first 20 or so episodes, this show is establishing itself. Certainly, having Team Rocket cut out of most episodes helps matters (and it's not that I have anything against them, I just think having them appear in every episode was getting too old). And then there are the episodes where we see Emolga that are great. The good is that this season is bringing in a fresh new concept. But at the same time, it has the same problems as it had in previous seasons, and I'll leave it at that.

Movies and OVAs

[NGE-R1] Rebuild of Evangelion 1.11: B+
The first film is basically a repeat of the first few episodes of the original TV series, which are great episodes, but not exactly the best ones. Nonetheless, the movie is very impressive, and the fight with the diamond angel was really something special to watch.

[NGE-R2] Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0: A-
Here, things diverge greatly from the TV series. The animation is top-notched, and the story told here was a great one. I can't wait to watch the next two movies.

Rewatch

[KON] K-On! (5-8): B+
Pretty much nothing new to say from the last time. It's K-On! and the characters are what make this show so great, especially Yui. Here we get the culture festival episodes, the Christmas episode, and the recruitement episode that resulted in Azumeow's appearance. These are the best episodes of the season.

On Hold

[NYZ] Nekogami Yaoyorozu (1): D
I watched it, and it did nothing to separate itself from other cliched shows of its type. Interesting concept, but not-so-interesting story. I'm passing on this for now.

[YYR] Yuru Yuri (1-2): D+
I actually enjoyed watching the first two episodes of this, but at the same time the show is so I might revisit this show later if I feel like it, but I think that the show just reuses several cliches that are typical in these types of shows. And it also does not help that I feel that the school uniforms in that show are so tacky.

[NO6] No. 6 (1): C
I began watching this towards the end of the season. While the first episode was enjoyable enough, the way the story was told did not spark anything for me to continue watching this. So for now out of interest of time with such a loaded fall season, I am putting this show on the backburner of things to re-visit at some point if I feel like it.

[Glamrgrl104]

My Bride is a mermaid-episodes 1-13- Well the 2nd time watching this is just as hilarious as the 1st. My bf liked it a lot he cracked up a lot watching it. :D

Wanting to finish up some of the series I've started, but there is just not enough time in the day :for instance right now procrastinating on a geography assignment due tomorrow :P

[pianocello]

Currently watching (episodes watched up to in brackets):

Outstanding
None

Very Good
Mayo Chiki! (finished)
While some of you disliked them, I actually liked the main couple. I thought the ending could do with more emotional impact though but I guess they are trying to leave room open for a 2nd season.

Usagi Drop (finished)
I won't be rewatching this any time soon but it was an educational guide to parenting.

Good
Ikoku Meiro no Croisee (4)

The presence of Alice makes things better. Maybe this might result in some good yuri doujinshi. :blush1:

Average
Nekogami Yaoyorozu (3)
Episode 1 had some good moments but the last 2 episodes have been pretty average.

R-15 (2)
Too lazy to catch up since the female lead is dull.

Sacred Seven (3)
Lame male characters but every female character they have introduced seems interesting and the new one they just introduced I hope to see more of.

Ro-Kyu-Bu! (2)
The high-pitched voices and the big-head, big-eyed character designs are kind of hard to sit through.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel (3)
Too kiddy for my taste. Needs yuri

Blade (2)
Crappy animation. Story has potential though.

Tiger and Bunny (2)
Not in a hurry to catch up with this though.

Below Average
Steins, Gate (2)
Not motivating to continue.

Hanasaku Iroha (2)
I thought episode 2 was truly awful with their continuing of "let's all try to make the main character miserable" plotline. The last 5 minutes turned things around and showed glimpses that the show maybe can still be redeemed. For now, yuri would certainly save this show.:devil:

Nichijou (1)
This was slightly better paced than the episode 0. Still not funny though.

Awful
None

[Shirou Emiya]

My Recently Watched Anime:
Beelzebub: Hirotta Akachan wa Daimaou!?.
Beelzebub Episodes 1-38.
Blue Exorcist Episodes 1-25.
Digimon Xros Wars Episodes 1-54.
Digimon Xros Wars II Episodes 1 & 2.
Dinosaur King Episodes 1-35.
Fairy Tail Episodes 1-102.
Fairy Tail OVA Episodes 1 & 2.
Gintama Episodes 1-37.
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Episodes 1-188.
Hunter x Hunter Pilot (1998).
Hunter x Hunter Episodes 1-52.
Hunter x Hunter (2011) Episodes 1-3.
Nurarihyon no Mago Episodes 1-11, 12.5 (Recap), 13-24, and 24.5 (Recap).
Nurarihyon no Mago: Sennen Makyou Episodes 1-11, 12.5 (Recap), and 13.
Tales of the Abyss Episodes 1-26.

Blue Exorcist was a wonderful anime, I hope it gets renewed for a second season in 2012.

[ilmaestro]

OK, I am as up to date as I can be for the first time this season, so let's go:

S Tier

Fate/Zero
Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai
Chihayafuru
Guilty Crown

Fate's first couple of episodes convinced me hard enough that I am waiting for a BD release before watching the rest. HaGaNai is a bit of a personal bias choice, but hey. Chihayafuru is my number one surprised of the season, a truly beautifully put together show, and Guilty Crown is just touching off Last Exile as the most exciting show of the season so far.

A Tier

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam
Ben-to
Working'!!
Gundam AGE

Last Exile is pretty much everything you could want out of a sequel in that universe, so far. Ben-to is original and hilarious, with some decent action. Working'!! remains the best comedy of the last few years, and Gundam AGE deserves a lot of kudos for totally overcoming my low expectations for it.

B Tier

UN-GO
Tamayura: Hitotose
C³
Bakuman. 2

UN-GO can improve a lot, but it is too classy for it to be much lower down than this. Tamayura has a delicacy that you don't see too often, hopefully they play on that as much as possible and leave some of the forced comedy of the previous ep out. C³ is a good example of "don't judge a box by its cover", and one of the biggest turnarounds I can remember from an underwhelming ep 1. Bakuman remains Bakuman.

C Tier

Shinryaku!? Ika-musume
Kimi to Boku
Mirai Nikki

All of these shows feel like they could be in B Tier instead, and it just comes down to my personal enjoyment of each. I still find many aspects of Ika-chan to be hit or miss, Kimi to Boku is a really sweet show but not one I would massively miss if it was suddenly not on, and Mirai Nikki I fully expect to move up my rankings once it sorts itself out a bit.

D Tier

Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon
Maji de Watashi ni Koi shinasai!
Maken-Ki!

Horizon still has me worried that it is going to slip into the dross of episode 2 far too often, and is not going to be able to tell the "real" story properly within the confines of TV anime. MajiKoi! needs to at least continue to be as madcap as possible, and it will remain a guilty, entertaining, pleasure of no real value whatsoever, and Maken-Ki! is just pretty bad. Would be dropped if not for Himegami~

Didn't start yet

Persona 4
Shakugan no Shana III
HUNTERxHUNTER

Really want to play P4 instead, probably on Vita, need to catch up with some previous Shana before moving on to III, and still not sure if I can be bothered with HxH from the start again.

Dropped

Phi Brain: Kami no PUZZLE

Yeah, the basic idea was ruined by the silly plot device, and it wasn't very well made. Puzzle solved.

--

fwiw, my list probably looked like this after one ep:

Fate/Zero
Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai
Ben-to
Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam
Chihayafuru
Guilty Crown
Working'!!
Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon
Gundam AGE
UN-GO
Tamayura: Hitotose
Bakuman. 2
Shinryaku!? Ika-musume
Mirai Nikki
Maji de Watashi ni Koi shinasai!
Kimi to Boku
Phi Brain: Kami no PUZZLE
Maken-Ki!
C³

Persona 4
Shakugan no Shana III
HUNTERxHUNTER

[Memphis]

I don't have much time these days since I'm always at work, but for the past week or so (whenever I had free time) I've been watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. This series might be my new top favorite. I'm not that big a fan of the original because I didn't like Ed or Al, but they're a major improvement in Brotherhood.

I have other series here that I've yet to open (although I've seen them on tv already)

[something]

I wanted to do this a week or two ago, but I've tried an ep of almost everything I intend to watch so this isn't a bad time.

Top Tier - Too early to call an import tier. My top 7 need to be whittled down to at four or five before I can be sure.
(01)　　Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai - ◄NEW► - 3 eps - Honestly, I have no idea what my favorite show is this season, at least not yet. Maybe it's this? Maybe it's not. So I'm just listing this first for now, since I watched 2-3 yesterday and Sena is tied for my favorite non-sequel character of the season. I've fallen for Sena so hard, just, goddamn. I like Yozora too, but Sena makes me moe so hard - and when appropriate, laugh my ass off. The eroge reading scene put me through a much wider range of emotions than it probably should have, which means I'm getting dangerously attached to Sena. Then there's Kobato <3 <3 and we haven't even mete everyone else yet. Big points for a really good male protagonist so far - light novels can be so hit or miss there. I know it's nto really accurate, but when a show makes me think "Haruhi + OreImo" even in a superficial way, that's a very good thing for me. [Import - Guaranteed if every episode is as good as 1-3, especially 2-3.]

(02)　　Mirai Nikki - ◄NEW► - 3 eps - A temporary #2 thanks to having my other favorite new character of the season - Yuno. Holy. Fuck. Yuno. This is definitely one of the most disturbing shows I've watched in a while, but when it comes as a result of Yuno doing something fucking insane I absolutely love it. I think what sealed it for me was a scene of Yuno running down the hallway in school... you know the one if you've seen it and understand the context. :sd: As good as this show is, chances are actually pretty low I'll import it. It gets a very heavy 3DCG penalty, which means that if I end up having 5-6 shows I really like but I can only import, say, 4, this one will get the cut even if that means buying something I like slightly less instead. I'm also not the type to pick horror/thriller shows as imports even if they're really good, but we'll see. It's just such a hugely competitive season. [Import - Less likely than its ranking implies.]

(03)　　Shakugan no Shana III - ◄NEW► - 3 eps - We've hit the point where the OVAs left off (well, only one or two scenes in the OVAs were relevant) and while there have been slow moments like the heavy "reminiscing" (coughrecapcough) in episode three, what really strikes me most about this season is how emotionally poignant each scene feels. Episode one was just smothered by the heavy feelings and the weight of Shana's determination. Something just feels really, really right about this season. It excites me tremendously. [Import - Almost guaranteed due to being a sequel to a show I imported.]

(04)　　Working'!! - ◄NEW► - 4 eps - Famires Wagnaria is as fun as it's ever been. Might be a new director, but if you ask me it's lost exactly zero of its charm. And we benefit from Yamada being in from episode one. =D [Import - Almost guaranteed due to being a sequel to a show I imported.]

(05)　　Fate/Zero - ◄NEW► - 4 eps - Mmm, oozes quality. This is the only show that comes close to Guilty Crown in terms of overall animation quality, and I like this show a hell of a lot more so fuck yeah Fate/Zero. The first major battle of the series in episode four was utterly beautiful. Incredible choreography and tension and animation. And Rider, my god I love Rider. I admit I'm not really looking forward to Caster and his master's rampages... that scene in episode two was, while incredibly well executed, a little too much for me. Anyway, great show so far, light years better than the Fate/Stay anime. Ahhh, adult male protagonists. It feels good. [Import - Depends on how the shows above it fare. Haven't yet decided if boxsets increase or decrease import chances.]

(06)　　Tamayura ~hitotose~ - ◄NEW► - 4 eps - Finally got me to watch the OVAs since this directly follows them, and I'm so happy to see SatoJun back doing what he does best. If I can't have more Aria, it's great to at least get this. EXTREME IYASHIKEI. Let's photo! We better see more of Chihiro soon though. [Import - Depends on how the shows above it fare.]

(07)　　Shinryaku!? Ikamusume - ◄NEW► - 3 eps - ...It's Ikamusume! I dunno, any reason why I should need to explain beyond that? [Import - This will be a tough choice. I'd hate to skip the second season after importing the first when this season is just as good, but against tougher competition. But I'm not sure this show can quite make top 4 or 5 or however many I import. Too much good anime in Fall! ;_;]


Second Tier
(08)　　Bakuman 2 - ◄NEW► - 4 eps - It's still Bakuman and I still love it. Time to see how many episodes we can go with me being the only one posting about it!

(09)　　Mashiro-iro Symphony - ◄0► - 3 ep - Airi had been irritating me (lern2tsundere) but I really like everyone else, and it should only be another episode or so before Airi fully drops the haughty attitude. So, yay. Everything else about this is nice, comfortable, likable romance visual novel adaptation material. I enjoy it.

(10)　　Kidou Senshi Gundam AGE - ◄NEW► - 3 eps - Hardcore UC fans can't get past the character designs? ::shrugs:: Oh well. Personally, I think this is really well put together, and aside from two characters (fat kid and old scientist) I don't mind the designs at all. In Emily's and Yurin's case I love them. Grudeck is cool too. The battles have been pretty good so far, and they haven't shied away from having characters die. With the introductory story completed, I'm definitely giving it a passing mark and plan to be in it for the long run.

(11)　　Chihayafuru - ◄NEW► - 3 eps - Extreme karuta, or something. It's my shoujo for the season, and so far so good.


Third Tier
(12)　　C³ - ◄NEW► - 4 eps - The pacing is pretty awful but I'm enjoying it anyway, which I guess is a good sign. Still can't get into Oonuma as a director without reservations, I guess. This show definitely wins for being the least like people were expecting though. Quite bloody and violent. Cutely bloody! Yukarin lead is always nice too, and she gets to make good use of her range as Fear.

(13)　　Ben-To - ◄NEW► - 2 eps - Fun so far, but don't have a lot to say about it. A ridiculous premise pulled off in an enjoyable way is usually a good thing.

(14)　　Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! - ◄NEW► - 2 eps - The other visual novel adaptation I'm watching this season, it's got a very different approach from Mashiro-iro that's for sure. I thought the first episode was incredible, while the second was pretty decent but not amazing. I love Gotou Yuuko's character though. =D Her and Kazuko are definitely my favorites.

(15)　　Persona 4 - ◄NEW► - 2 eps - Pretty good so far, but it'll take a few more episodes for me to really get into it. Chie is <3 Hate the gradients on the faces.


The Rest
(16)　　Guilty Crown - ◄NEW► - 1 eps - Absolutely the most beautiful show of the season (minus the shit CG mecha), with godly female character designs. But both the male and female lead are horribly bland after two episodes and this isn't really a favored genre of mine, so I don't think I'll watch more. I'd be satisfied with a bunch of .gifs of Tsugumi's delicious ass though!

(17)　　Kimi to Boku. - ◄NEW► - 2 eps - ...Yep. It's a thing. Pleasant enough I guess, but it's not the sort of show I'll go nuts over.

(18)　　UN-GO - ◄NEW► - 1 eps - First ep was just kind of there. No opinion yet.


OVAs, Specials, other oddities
Hunter x Hunter (2011) - 4 eps - Since it's a long-running show I'm not going to bother putting it in the seasonal rankings. So far, so good. It's great seeing all these characters again. I have no complaints about the handling of the remake so far, and from what I'm hearing it's closer to the manga, if anything.
Fairy Tail - 101 eps - S-rank test arc! Although it's already morphed into something else. Awesomeness is coming, for damn sure.
Suite Precure - 32 eps
Morita-san wa Mukuchi - 16 eps - Technically ep 3 of season 2 but whatever.


Dropped:
Phi Brain - Kami no Puzzle - 1 eps - Sorry SatoJun, I'll be sticking with your Tamayura instead.
Maken-ki! - 0.5 eps


Still need/plan to try (may not have aired):
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon


(Blah blah disclaimer, the number on a tier is not at all indicative of a show's absolute quality, merely its quality relative to the other shows on the list).

Ergh, I can't have a seven-series top tier. That's bad. Bad for my import budget (wait I have a budget? I thought I just blindly spent until I realized I'd descended into madness). Jeeze, at the very least one of them will have to get cut but I don't yet have a clue which it'll be. Those seven are so goddamn good though, and have clearly distinguished themselves from everything else.

I don't have a clear favorite either. I put Haganai, but in reality I'm totally undecided. Any of the top 4 could be it.

As far as first impressions go, this is at least as good as Spring, probably better.

[Fencedude]

Still need/plan to try (may not have aired):
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

I'm gonna be on tenterhooks all week!

Anyway, this is a hell of a season, isn't it? I should actually do one of these, I actually have quite a bit I want to say for once.

[HitokiriShadow]

Still need/plan to try (may not have aired):
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

I'm gonna be on tenterhooks all week!

Anyway, this is a hell of a season, isn't it? I should actually do one of these, I actually have quite a bit I want to say for once.

Each season, I intend to do one of these at some point.... but they take a while to write and I never get around to it. I think its been nearly two years since I did one. But yeah, this season is ridiculously good.

[Suwako Moriya]

Each season, I intend to do one of these at some point.... but they take a while to write and I never get around to it. I think its been nearly two years since I did one. But yeah, this season is ridiculously good.

I still do them on occasion, but have been doing them less often. I think it boils down to four things.

First, sometimes it feels like I'm just repeating myself. Saying the same thing I did for episode 4-6 as I did for 1-3.

Second, the more shows I'm commenting on the more things start to blend together. How many times can I say "Amazing" or "Awful"?

Third, while the first three shows are easy to talk about, by the time I can get to the twelfth one, I start to feel the load.

Fourth, I also have the issue of deciding "Update now" or "Catch Up" first. This sort of screws me over. Especially when I have some shows I'm just not in the mood for or uncertain about.

I guess related to the fourth is the idea of whether to try out more shows before a given update or just go ahead with it. Of course, if I've already tried all the shows I care about.....

[Shirou Emiya]

Bleach Episodes 222-227 (Viz Media Uncut English Dub).
Naruto Shippuden Episodes 91-100 (Viz Media Uncut English Dub).

[Damius]

Still need/plan to try (may not have aired):
Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

I'm gonna be on tenterhooks all week!

Anyway, this is a hell of a season, isn't it? I should actually do one of these, I actually have quite a bit I want to say for once.

Each season, I intend to do one of these at some point.... but they take a while to write and I never get around to it. I think its been nearly two years since I did one. But yeah, this season is ridiculously good.

Since I'll start next season next week, this is such great news for a Monday morning! Next Monday can't come soon enough!

[Alphanega]

For me this season:

The Awesome

Mirai Nikki/Future Diary

I;ve waited about 4 years for this anime adaption and it does not disappoint. I had set my expectations to medium low given that asread doesn;t have the best reputation, but so far it;s an excellent adaptation and I appreciate that theyir adding in material from the side stories to help flesh out the main story. Not to mention that they've helped to make Yuno even more glorious than in the manga. Only complaint is the CGI but at this point, I;ve seen it in too much stuff to let it bother me

Persona 4: The Animation

This is a show that really should have been 52 episodes, and it;s pretty obvious from the get go that it needed to be that long, but despite that handicap it;s been a pretty fun adaption of the game so far. I appreciate all the extra details they;ve put in for the fans, and I do like how the shadow encounters are being expanded a bit. Hopefully it'll slow down a bit once Yukiko's arc ends, bue even so I;m loving this so far.

Hunter X Hunter 2011

Having read the manga, but not seen the first anime, this is my first time seeing everything animated and it;s been a blast so far. It;s felt kind of weird having Kaito being taken out of the earlier parts of the story, but even with that it;s been working pretty well. It;s great to see my favorite characters from the manga like Gon and Hisoka being animated and it looks like despite it;s timeslot, the series is has a solid balance of violence which is good considering how gory the manga is a lot of the time. I hope this gets picked up for a US release eventually, although it would probably never fly on TV outside of AS or something even though I;d love to see it on TV.

The Solid

Fate/Zero

I never actually finished Fate/Stay night, but I;m still liking this so far. The set up for the war has been pretty good so far and I;m liking the production values. I;d have put it into the awesome category, but I;m still trying to get a bit more into the story.

Gundam AGE

This show is pretty much proof that "kid's show" does not translate to "terrible". While it;s obvious that it;s going for a younger audience than say Gundam 00, it;s still been pretty solid so far, and it;s had a fair share of violence in addition to Flit being a surprisingly likeable lead. I'll definently have no problems following this for a while though I;m hoping we learn a whole lot more about the UE and that they don;t stay completely dehumanized.

The Okay

Guilty Crown

I;m willing to admit that I came into this show with REALLY high expectations given the people on staff and that it's probably the biggest influence on my opinion of the show. So far I have to say that the production values are the biggest saving grace of the show because the animation and music are great. That being said the story is sort of...meh.

It;s not terrible or anything but there are already parts of it that seem like a pretty big stretch even within the setting of the show, and given that it;s in the NotiMina timeslot I was expecting a much more mature story. The show will probably get better and will hopefully shoot up my list a bit but for the moment it;s just average.

Phi Brain

I;ve decided not to take any part of this show seriously, and it;s been more or less watcheable as a result. I do kind of wish they;d go a bit more in-depth with some of the puzzles but then considering their going for a pre-teen audience I;m guessing they don;t want to bore them with explinations. I'll probably keep watching this until it gets noticeably terrible, but for right now it;s kind of amusing.

[superdry]

Alright...about three weeks into the new season.

Non-season stuff
1) Ore no Imouto Ga Konnani Kawaii Wake Ga Nai: Rewatch. Up to episode 11, but skipped the awful episode 8. I still love this show even through a second viewing (this is probably the first time I'm rewatching a show, too). Kirino <3. Now, during this second watch, I finally understand some people's complaints regarding Kirino (didn't really notice it during my first watch). Eh...doesn't bother me though. I can't wait for a second season. Maybe Fall 2012?.

2) The iDOLM@STER[/u] - Continuation from Summer 2011. No complaints through the latest episode. Everything has been fantastic all around.

Fall Season stuff

1) Boku wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai - My most anticipated show of the Fall season and after three episodes it does not disappoint. It's following the light novels pretty well, so I'm sort of bound to like the anime. All the characters are really fun...especially Sena. I can't wait for everyone else to show up.

2) Shakugan no Shana III - Second most anticipated show of the season. I have to watch it since I'm a huge fan of the series. So, far three episodes in and lots of set up. I don't mind that since I know shit will be going down soon and I hope JC Staff doesn't muck it up since it should be really exciting.

3) Maken-ki - Generic, lots of fanservice and cliches. The girls have ridiculous breast size (besides three) which is a turn off. It's a dumb show, but mindless fun. I really like Haruko and Himegami - those two are enough for me to continue watching the show.

4) Majikoi - Love me Seriously - I don't know what to make of this show. The first episode was pretty crazy with the class war. Second episode hinted at something darker and the third episodes was a bizarre two character focus. Fun to watch though and can't really complain if a show is entertaining so far.

5) C3 - Another show I don't know what to make of. First episode was a troll and then it just went in a totally different direction the rest of the way. I'm going to continue watching to see where it goes.

6) Persona 4 - Played the game, liked the game and the anime is, for the most part, following the story of the game pretty well. Another keeper.

7) Working'!! - Solid sequel to the first season. Nothing has changed and I like that. The jokes don't seem to get old no matter how many time I've seen it between the episodes in season 2 and 1.

8) Ben-To - Had to check out the show based on the premise alone. Turns out to be a really fun show to watch. Who would have known fighting for food would be this intense?

9) Guilty Crown - Really nice to look at (the CG doesn't bother me too much), but the two leads are, eh, right now even though the lead female is wearing the most beautifully improbable dress. Things seem to be a little too convenient right now with the plot. I feel like I need to give this a show a few more episodes.

-----------

Damn...10 shows to watch during Fall + 1 for non-season stuff. I don't think I've ever followed this many shows before and I don't know if I can follow more.

Out of the nine Fall shows I'm following, only Haganai and Shana III are 100% guaranteed imports (I need to prioritize and can't buy everything I like). I'd like to buy Persona 4, but Sentai has licensed it and I can wait for their release. I'm also importing Maken-ki - I pre-ordered volume 1 because it comes with a dakimakura of Haruko and due to OCD collector tendency, I'll need to finish the show. I guess, technically, Maken-ki is another guaranteed import.

[Glamrgrl104]

Peach Girl disc 2 & 3- Better than the 1st time watching it. I just like the relationships between the characters. I am in the process of watching Nana too which is a good drama/romance anime.

[Suwako Moriya]

10/19/11 Update (http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showpost.php?p=1963327&postcount=14)

I'm not going to bother commenting on what I tried before because I'd just be repeating myself. This is going to instead be focused on the remaining series. Some that I've tried, and some that I have not tried. While explaining why that is.

UN-GO (2)

There is potential to be interesting based on the concept, but sadly it's not working for me. Problem is the show is simply leaving me feeling disconnected. About the only time I really take notice is when "truth addict" acts up and that's like taking notice when you step on a sharp object while walking barefoot. As such I am treating this series as dropped. I don't have the time to keep watching it with so many other series on my plate.


Chihayafuru (3)

It's an interesting series so far and has a lot of potential. That being said, sometimes it feels like they're trying too hard to sell karuta. Also, the drama can get to be a bit much. I do have enough interest to try more, but I hope they balance things out a bit.


Fate/Zero (0)

I gave it some thought, but realized that I don't have enough interest in the Fate series to give this a chance. Not that I've had much experience Fate. Just that previous anime and a cheating game.

Shakugan no Shana III (2)

Wow. That's one way to start of the final season. I have to admit I was kind of nervous about trying this. Maybe I was afraid of the wow factor wearing off? In any case, I think I might play fall behind and catch up with this. Not sure yet, but I do hope to over time finish it.

Mirai Nikki (0)

To be honest, I'm hesitant about even starting this. Comments I've read indicate that the series will probably end up being too err "dark" for my tastes and that to enjoy it, you need to get a certain level of joy out of that darkness.

Plus, I think I've already got my fill of darkness from another show. Note, I'm using darkness to mean things like violent as opposed to meaning things like using black magic. If that makes any sense. I kind of feel bad about saying darkness is bad because err I was born at night and I fall under the Moon. Yes, I know that's silly to mention, but...

-------------------------------

I know there are other series, but I don't feel like commenting on them. Or maybe I just have no idea what to say about them right now. Although with some series, people can probably guess why I haven't tried them. In any case, I hope to have a finalized list later in November and make updates more regularly. Which means it won't happen.

[Buckeye]

Next up is Bakemonogatari.
It took me awhile to get to this show with all that is going on with the new stuff, but I finished watching Bakemonogatari as I had planned on watching this for Halloween. It's a very nice show about a human who became a vampire, but was able to return to being a human again going around and helping girls who had been cursed by a ghost spirit. This show had a ton of strange imagery and would often make use of a lot of flashing screens of text. It was all great as the stories themselves were nice and well-written for the most part. The characters were the best part of the show.

Next up, I'm not sure what I want to do aside from the current stuff that's streaming. Right now, I am leaning towards Darker Than Black as my next show, that or my rewatch of Utawarerumono.

[pianocello]

Currently watching (episodes watched up to in brackets):

Outstanding
None

Very Good
None

Good
None


Average
R-15 (3)
Starting to improve but that's not really saying much.

Steins, Gate (15)
The first half of the show was a snoozefest and I'm surprised I actually made it this far (I suppose the Kurisu doujins did help) ;) . And then suddenly at episode 13, this show suddently became amazing. Even if this show has the most awesome ending eventually, I still can't forget that the first half sucks. Still, I now have motivation to finish this.

Hanasaku Iroha (3)
I was convinced I could drop this by episode 3. And then they had to keep getting better with each subsequent episode. And even if I know it will go nowhere, they just had to tempt me by putting yuri. Damn! Now I will have to finish this show.

Nichijou (2)
I was pretty certain I would drop it after this episode and then they had to do some really crazy animation and some truly funny gags. Damn! While the show is still pretty much hit-and-miss, it's moments of brilliance like this that makes me want to continue as the show seems to finding its stride.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel (4)
This was a really dumb episode. Still it has Aoi's boobs so I will continue watching. :sdsmiley:

Tiger and Bunny (3)
I was definitely expecting to drop it by the last episode as the campy tone and cliched interaction between the two leads was not making it for me. Unfortunately, it's not bad enough for me to drop so I think I'll give it a few more episodes. I really think this show has one of the dumbest anime titles though.

Blade (3)
While I really want to drop this show because of the crappy animation, the character development is starting to be quite good.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee (5)
No Alice and no yuri implications makes this a dull episode.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu (3)
Will catch up with this later.

Sacred Seven (3)
Will catch up with this later.

Below Average
Ro-Kyu-Bu! (finished)
Looks like this is officially the first dud of the summer season. While I wouldn't call it horrible and it does have some positive moments, I find the character designs too distracting to enjoy this show. And not to mention the show's insistence on going for the usual "oops I accidentally walked in on you" fanservice cliche. I normally enjoy this kind of scenes but the ages of the characters just make it creepy. Not to mention the big head big eyes character designs makes it seem like it was made for people who want to fap to deformed mutants.

Awful
None

[Glamrgrl104]

Peach Girl-discs 3 &4- Overall a good romance anime. could have been better at some parts, but it is pretty enjoyable.

My bride is a mermaid-episode 14-19- Hilarious. I just might have to get this one later lol.

[pianocello]

Currently watching (episodes watched up to in brackets):

Outstanding
None

Very Good
None

Good
Nichijou (3)
Nice. The show has steadily been improving and the jokes are starting to work better.


Average
R-15 (4)
The female lead is getting more tolerable but one my main problems is the male lead - for someone who writes porn, he sure acts like a complete pussy when it comes to women.

Steins, Gate (16)
They're still maintaining the good run.

Hanasaku Iroha (4)
Not bad. The show is now starting to get interesting once they drop the "let's make life miserable for the main character" schtick. The sooner they drop Minko's tsundere act, the better it will be.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel (5)
Still dumb but it looks like they are starting to get into the plot

Tiger and Bunny (4)
Episode 4 was a good episode. Looks like I will need to finish it now.

Blade (3)
Need to catch up on this.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee (5)
Needs yuri.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu (4)
This show is not utilizing its potential and its getting worse.


Below Average
Sacred Seven (5)
For a show that started promisingly, this is slowly degenerating into garbage. Character personalities are inconsistent and from one episode to the other, people act like they are different characters.

Awful
None

[Glamrgrl104]

My bride is a mermaid Eng Dub-episodes 19-end- This series was LOL funny through the 2nd time watching it as well. My BF loved it XD

Chaos;Head-episodes 1 & 2 ENG DUB- Very interesting plot, it is kinda weird when I think of Death Note and Welcome to the NHK combined together lol. Very cool series can't wait to see more.

Pani Poni Dash- discs 1-3- What better way to get rid of Test anxiety than watch anime :D This series is pretty much random with their episodes so it is good. I can watch two episodes than work on HW and then get back to watching the rest when I am done.

[Glamrgrl104]

pani poni dash discs 4-6- Wacky to the end, but been wanting to watch something sci fi type so finished this series onto something else.

Darker than black: Gemini of the Meteor- episodes 1-12- WOW I finished S2 in a few hours, but still loved it. They did kind of leave this series open for a possible third season, but overall it was wrapped up nicely. I saw two episodes of the OVA too, but should have maybe watched the OVA before watching the 2nd season.

[EmperorBrandon]

I wanted to get in at least four episodes of most series I was continuing before getting to this, and now I've (finally) gotten that far, so here we go. This is, as always, in very rough order of interest.

Very high interest:

Tamayura ~hitotose~ (6) - I'm so happy this blast of SatoJun iyashikei sweetness has been made into a TV series. More of what I loved about the OVA here, and even more that that with Chihiro awesomeness and finding out more about Maon.

Shinryaku!? Ikamusume (5) - Not much to say here: it's more Ikamusume, so of course it's great fun. Only drawback so far is it hasn't done anything particularly exciting that stands out above the first series, but I wasn't really expecting that. Still very enjoyable as always.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (4) - I was looking forward to this because I loved the character designs for the series, and I can say the series so far doesn't disappoint. A lot of fun, and the characters are particularly quirky. Seems like this may have potential even beyond that if they take the serious "friendship" theme to interesting places for me.

Ben-To (5) - Extremely amusing action-y premise with beautiful girls and a godly seiyuu cast. Really wasn't sure what to expect of this series at first even though I liked it, and I think it's settling into something that's quite a lot of fun to watch.

High interest:

Future Diary (5) - Very, very intriguing series so far that really gets me looking forward to what happens in the next episode. Yuno is a weird mixture of psychotic, cute, and awesome that's rather appealing.

Chihayafuru (6) - While I'm not too interested in the karuta, Chihaya is such great quirky character and I really love seeing her enthusiasm and interactions with others. We're just now finally starting to get some new characters (an awesome one to start off, at that), and definitely seems like the series is still on a very interesting track to me.

Mashiroiro Symphony (6) - This one is a very surprisingly pleasant eroge adaptation, and I've gotten more into so far than I have for similar titles like Fortune Arterial and Hoshikaka which were more mediocre to me.

Working'!! (6) - As with the other continuing series, not too much the say here. I think I'm enjoying it even more than expected, though. A little hit or miss as Working!! has always been for me, but there were some particularly hilarious and interesting moments around.

Moderate interest:

Persona 4: The Animation (6) - This is a fairly interesting, entertaining series so far. Haven't played the game, so this is my introduction to the franchise, and it's a good one so far.

Fate/Zero (5) - I wasn't expecting to care too much about more Type/Moon stuff, but it's fairly interesting so far and the recent episodes have been rather exciting. May be bordering on "high interest".

Last Exile: Fam, the Silver Wing (4) - Cute main characters, nice seiyuu cast, and while it's not particularly interesting at this point, I feel it has some decent potential.

Guilty Crown (5) - This is another series that might have some potential, but for now it's not particularly exciting. I do really like the hot female character designs and general prettiness, though hopefully the character interactions and story will start to pick up in interesting ways.

Hunter X Hunter (6) - Well, I continue to enjoy this one for much the same reason that I remember liking the original more than the usual shounen series: it tends to be enjoyably clever and I like the main bunch of characters. I'm hesitant to stick with long series but may do so with this one.

Phi Brain (6) - For a series I expected I might not feel like following (with so many other series I'm watching this season), it's fairly enjoyable so far. I guess it amuses me how over the top they are with puzzles.

C Cube (6) - Frankly, while I like the cute Sasorigatame designs and I was fairly intrigued by it at first, I haven't really gotten too into it. The pace hasn't been to my liking. Still, I don't think I'm dropping the series.

Low interest:

Kimi to Boku (5) - First episode has me thoroughly convinced I wasn't going to watch more of this, and while some of the subsequent episodes got my attention more, it's just missing too much for me with its hit-or-miss nature.

Un-Go (3) - This was another series that wasn't much to my tastes and was just boring me. Didn't really get into the style of detective story it was going with, and the character designs were unappealing.

Maken-ki! (5) - I watched more of this than I was expecting, being tempted by some cute, amusing characters. Can't say I expected to follow this any more though and it's effectively dropped with so many more interesting titles around.

Majikoi (5) - The character designs are really hot, which is nice, but the characters themselves just really seem to be boring me to death for some reason. It's just not my style of comedy, I guess. This is likely dropped.

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere (2) - I got to watching the second episode after the last time I commented, but I still couldn't get myself to care about most of the characters. Watching it felt too much like a waste of time.

Haven't tried:

Hidamari Sketch X SP (0) - Oh, I will most definitely be watching this, since I'm really enjoying this series as I catch up on it. I am still on Hoshimittsu, though, and following TAN's schedule for that, so I will get to this after I'm finished.

Shakugan no Shana III -Final- (0) - I will be trying this eventually, but not likely during the season. I've got a lot of catchup to do, that I don't want to get around to just yet.

Bakuman. 2 (0) - I doubt I'll be catching up on the first series soon. Not that I disliked it, but I've got too much other stuff I want to watch.

Gundam Age (0) - I'll try a few episodes if streamed maybe, but otherwise I'm not bothering. I didn't bother with the last Gundam TV series, so nothing new in my case.

[Buckeye]

I have watched at least three episodes of every show I am interested in watching this season. This season, I had intended to watch more simulcasts than before as I have been watching only one or two simulcasts a season due to my slow internet connection that has since been upgraded. In doing so, I am watching fewer DVDs and BDs this season. Since FMA-B is also finished on Adult Swim, that also gives me more time to watch new stuff. Anyway, here is my list and how likely I will continue to watch it.



Fate/Zero - I watched FSN, and it was great. I'm watching this, and there is a lot more depth to this show. So with everything going on, the show is definitely something I will continue to be watching.
Chihayafuru - It has been a while since I last watched a shoujo or josei anime, and while this show is about karuta, it's more about Chihaya, Arata, and Taichi. There is a ton of great development between these characters, and it is doing great wonders to this show. Definitely continuing to watch.
Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere - The show has great promise on the surface, but so far this is hardly what I expected something from Sunrise to be like. The first three episodes just were not doing it. And then things started to roll in episode 4, but with so much that is hard to understand at this point. I hope that there will be more coming than just the 12 episodes planned since with the way things are shaping up, this series will need a lot more episodes than that to tell its story. The show has a great female cast, so I will keep watching this.
Last Exile: Fam of the Silver Wing - Takes of nicely where the first season ended nicely, and everything that made Last Exile so great is back. I am certainly planning to continue to watch this.
Guilty Crown - This is such an awesome show. The animation looks superb, but the storyline is what makes it great. Lots of twists and turns going on, and it begins with a clueless boy trying to protect a girl and gets caught in the middle of a great conflict. Then there are the two forces going against each other, with neither side exactly being just. These next episodes will be quite the treat.
Mashiroiro Symphony - At first, I thought that this was going to be just another bad adaptation of an adult visual novel and I was quite pessimistic about this show after watching shows like We Without Wings and Yosuga no Sora mess things up badly. So I'm giving this show a try, and it was a pleasant surprise. The male lead is a nice guy, and one that approaches things the right way. And the girls are just great in this show, especially Sakuno and Miu. While far from being a masterpiece like Kanon, the show is solid. Great characters will always make me want to watch this show. So I am continuing to watch this as time permits.
Un-Go - It's a detective story, and the crimes are quite extravagant here. Pretty much, I am expecting to get the same thing in just about every episode I watch of this. The biggest gripe I have about this show are the character designs. They just do not look appealing. I will watch it only if time permits as it is lost in my long backlog.
Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai! - When it comes to silly concepts, this one has got to be the silliest of them all. A school for swordmasters and wars using replica weapons, and the battlefield being a fanservice fest. Then a lot of weirdness ensues afterward. I am dropping this show for the time being.

[Glamrgrl104]

Nana episode 22 & 23- Still an instant fav. for romantic drama.

Sekai-World's greatest Love- Episode 17- I just love the relationship between Ritsu and Takano. awww.

You and me-episode 1- This is a cute Slice of life story; in the first 4 mins it is pretty dull, but get past that and it is pretty good.

Steins:Gate- episode 1- AMAZING. I haven't seen such an interesting and a plot that sucks you in since Monster and Death Note. I watched a little of Chaos Head- although that one is more funny than this one. I am really enjoying this series and it is only the 1st episode! I hope they dub this one.

[Glamrgrl104]

Nana episode 24-39- The plot thickens and lots of drama.This anime makes me tear up a little bit; it is so depressing of a series sometimes. It does show real human emotion; I think that is why I like this series.

Spice and Wolf-episode 12- This show is getting more interesting. I love the relationships and the unexpected plot twists.

[Buckeye]

Right now, I am leaning towards Darker Than Black as my next show.
And I just finished Darker Than Black. I have been meaning to watch this show, but I just now got around to it with season 2 just being released. Anyway, this show is pretty nice to watch and is told in two-episode bits with Hei on missions involving a Contractor causing havoc. All of the stories were well-told in those two-episode bits and it all leads up to one big conspiracy going on. It was nice all-around to watch and everything.

Next up, it will be Thanksgiving and I am thinking of watching something throwback as far as rewatching something. So Utawarerumono is next up since I have the DVDs received as a grab bag gift a couple of years ago.

[pianocello]

Currently watching (episodes watched up to in brackets):

Outstanding
None

Very Good
Macross Frontier Movie 2: Sayonara no Tsubasa
Despite flaws, it was one of the better movies of the year even though I still don't care about Alto.

Good
Nichijou (4)
Nice. I hope they continue to have yuri gags.

Steins; Gate (17)
Good. They are improving with each episode. Hopefully, the ending won't disappoint.

Average
R-15 (5)
I just realized that the weak link of this show is the male and female lead.

Manyuu no Hikenchou (1)
Extremely dumb show that manages to top Seikon no Qwaser in the "what were they thinking" department. It still has fanservice so I will continue watching.

Hanasaku Iroha (5)
I think I will like this better if they fix the fact that Minko is all tsun and no dere.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel (5)
Need to catch up on this.

Tiger and Bunny (4)
Need to catch up on this.

Blade (4)
Not bad. The character development makes up for the almost non-existent animation.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee (6)
Yay for more yuri subtext.


Below Average
Sacred Seven (6)
Hmm...now they are trying to put some forced attempts at romance. Blah.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu (5)
Arguably one of the worst beach episodes in recent history. Instead of fanservice, we get 80% episode of the episode focusing on boring antics of some guy. After a promising first episode, this show has really sunk.

Awful
None

[Orochimaru]

Subbed unless otherwise noted.

Currently airing:

Bleach (dubbed on adult swim): It seems we're headed into another long filler arc. Yay. I miss the days when this show was actually good. Even the cannon material isn't nearly as good as it used to be. Since it's just one episode a week and I've already seen 230, there's no chance of me actually dropping this show, but it's just disappointing considering how good it used to be.

Well at least the recent beach episode was pretty funny. And the dub seems better now after it got worse for a while. And I think it's finally going to get to the good part after this filler arc... which will take months...

C3: After watching the first episode in horrible quality, I rewatched it in good quality on niconico. Then I had to watch it on Funimation because niconico wanted me to pay for membership. So now I'm stuck with what appears to be 360p (still way better than what I had before) and adds... and of course the show is censored. And just generally not as good as I hoped it would be. I'm not totally sure, but I think I'll put this on hold and then watch an uncensored version in good quality when it's available.

Hunter x Hunter: I am so fucking glad crunchyroll licensed this. I wouldn't call it my favorite of all my currently watching shows- that would have to go to Bleach still despite its many issues- but it is the one I enjoy most every week. I'm really glad they decided to remake this show instead of letting it die in obscurity.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon: Entertaining show. It sucks that crunchyroll is always over a week behind on it but whatever.

Mirai Nikki: Girl kills people with axes. Cool. I probably won't put this on hold like C3 since I can actually watch it in good quality now, but I still wish it wasn't censored...

Ika Musume season 2: Pretty much the same as the first season. And the animation continues to remind me of Pokemon. I don't comment on it in the discussion thread because I don't have much to say about it, but it's good.

Other:

Fairy Tail: I finally started watching this. I considered watching it dubbed, since the dub's pretty good from what I saw of it and the characters are speaking English in the show, but in the end I said fuck it and decided to just watch it in Japanese. I just really wish crunchyroll had all the episodes... anyway good show and getting better.

Gokujou Seitokai: Some random thing I found on CR. Nothing amazing, but pretty funny.

Nurarihyon no Mago: I started watching this over the summer and gradually lost interest and stopped watching after 5 episodes. Maybe it was all those commercials on Hulu. I'm now watching it through... better means and enjoying it more. Not outstanding but pretty good, and I like the idea of a long shounen manga being animated as separate seasons (so hopefully no filler). I'm sure I'll actually finish it this time.

[Buckeye]

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon: Entertaining show. It sucks that crunchyroll is always over a week behind on it but whatever.

JSYK, The Anime Network has made this show available to all users for free now, so you don't have to wait a week anymore to watch it on Crunchyroll.

[Orochimaru]

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon: Entertaining show. It sucks that crunchyroll is always over a week behind on it but whatever.

JSYK, The Anime Network has made this show available to all users for free now, so you don't have to wait a week anymore to watch it on Crunchyroll.

Hmm, so it is. Quality's not as good as CR's but definitely watchable. I've never watched anything on anime network before and barely even heard of it so I didn't think of that.

Thanks for letting me know.

[Glamrgrl104]

Nana episode 47- *cries* this anime just had a depressing ending and even though it had more episodes it had an ending like Parakiss where it didn't explain the whole picture, but I guess it is lead to your own interpretation. Not a dull moment once, the drama and music made this an anime I could really get into and I am \sad that it is over with, but I will put this on my list of animes to get.

Now need something upbeat and funny.

[Damius]

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon: Entertaining show. It sucks that crunchyroll is always over a week behind on it but whatever.

JSYK, The Anime Network has made this show available to all users for free now, so you don't have to wait a week anymore to watch it on Crunchyroll.

If only the quality on AN was as good as CR, I would have switch... But the video doesn't look as good. Plus, I don't know if it's still the case, but the subs was looking like DVD subs (not as smooth as CR ones).

[Glamrgrl104]

Fairy Tail P1 disc 1&2 Finished- LOVE it! The action, plot, and humor in this is so addicting. Show me more!

[Buckeye]

So Utawarerumono is next up.

And watching Utawarerumono a third time I did. In addition, I went on and watched the OVAs as well. I really liked this show back when I first saw it in 2007, and it is still a great show to watch with all of the characters and the fact that there is so much development in this show.

Next up is K-On!, a show that I am currently in the middle of rewatching that I will be finishing.

[Suwako Moriya]

~Before Autumn~

Suite Precure (40)

The increased presence of Muse has clearly made the series more valuable for me. Beyond that, not much else to say. Pretty Cure is still Pretty Cure. Which is not a bad thing since it is my favorite magical series. I might be better of just waiting off and doing a final comments later. Since after we only have so many episodes before this show ends and Smile Precure starts.

Idolm@ster (21)

I do have some issue with a certain long term plot thread the series introduced several episodes back. Simply because it has the problem of being a distraction, but I suppose they needed some form of "Second Half Shift"

That being said, the series has been pretty good over all. Episode 20 was awesome and a very strong episode. It could have almost worked as some sort of season finale. It's that special.

It will be curious to see what they do with the remaining episodes of the series. So many girls to focus on and so little time remaining. Yes, I consider five episodes or so to be little time. At least I think this is supposed to be 25 in total. Could be wrong though.

Jewel Pet Sunshine (9)

As you can probably guess I've decided for certain reasons to just focus on earlier episodes. In any case, the tone of this series is quite different from the previous two. I think the best way to put is this.

The cast feels more flawed, but that's what makes it interesting. Kanon isn't a young girl trying to find courage like Rinko. She isn't an elementary student coming of age and learning to be herself.

No, she's a third year high school student that's full of herself and Ruby has serious issues. Let's put it this way, the series focuses on what is known as the reject class. That should put things in perspective.

Still what I love most is this. It's different enough from Original and Tinkle that it makes this series the perfect test. A test to see what people notice difference between versions and what people purposely ignore them.

Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream (17)

I continue to love the idea of spending quality time with the trio. Mion even with her flaws and issues has been a great introduction to the series. That being said, it does feel like they are keeping in mind this is a four cour series. Which is both a good and bad thing. Still, it's fun to watch and that's what matters.

~Started in Autumn~

Kimi to Boku (4)

Let's see here. I rather like Masaki, she's lovely and appeals to my warped tastes. In terms of the lead males, I think Shun is the best of the bunch. However that's not much. See here is the problem.

Chizuru is *****ing annoying and being a guy that's not of a trap quality, he doesn't have the benefit of err let's just call it being a pretty to look at. Yes, I know what I'm saying is shallow, but it should be obvious what I'm getting at.

Meanwhile the other three males essentially feel more like "background decorations" than actual characters. So much so that I can't even be bothered to remember their names.

It also doesn't help that in the flashback scenes, the boring ones actually show some personality. Which begs the question. What happened between now and then? Did some generic magical girl villain steal their personalities away?

I'm mixed feelings on what to do. I feel like dropping it because it's been lacking, but at the same time because Shun is at least half-way decent and because I like Masaki, I'm hesitant to drop the series. Although as you can tell, I have fallen behind greatly. Maybe I should just put it on hold and revisit it after the series ends?


Persona 4 (8)

Chie is wonderful and Yukiko is too. The more of these two the series has the better. I do have some issue with the whole "therapy" aspect of the series because it can get repetitive, but that aside it has been an interesting series. It sort of makes me regret the fact I haven't gotten around to trying the game yet. Not that I'm not playing enough already.

Guilty Crown (7)

The formula of the series is getting tiring. I know they can't avoid part of it due to the way they set things up. Because no matter what they try, people including me would see it as a plot device.

Even so that doesn't change the fact they could do a better job with it. Also, some things are a bit forced.

I think the main reason I watch is that I keep hoping there will be some form of pay off with Inori, but every time I think there getting close, the show says "Just kidding" and laughs in my face.

The show does have some potential, it just needs to start realizing that potential. Plus, I admit it is curious to see what the err void of the week is.

Phi Brain (9)

Let's solve the puzzle of why I'm still watching this on the side. The answer is quite simple. It's utterly ridiculous nature creates a since of curiosity. Curiosity to see just how "serious business" the show can really get. Also, I have a thing for Nonoha, so maybe that's part of the reason why.

Maji De Watashi ni Koishinasai! (6)

On the positive side, some of the girls of the series have been rather fun and there have been decent moments. However episode six left me with what can essentially be described as WTF feeling.

I'm sorry, but they're really pushing it with the show and that episode has made me afraid to even watch anymore of this. Especially if there's the danger of getting more that is the horror of episode 6.

Also, it's become quite clear to me of one thing. That this is one of the shows where the "plot" only exists for the purpose of having a way to end the series. As such, I expect the plot to not really matter until around oh say episode 11.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon (9)

The series does take a few episodes to truly start flowing. However once it does start flowing it becomes quite clear this is a series worth sticking with. As the story has been rather interesting so far and I like the goal they have in mind.

The only downsides are this. First, this series can definitely benefit from supplemental information. So the more we have of it the better. The less we have of it, the worse. Second, I sometimes had trouble absorbing things, but that's more my fault than the shows.

Oh, and if I need anymore convincing the show was worth sticking with, episode gave me multiple good reasons. Anyone who has seen it should know what I mean by that. Good reasons, indeed.

C3 (5)

I'm starting to fall a bit behind on this. It's not a bad show, it's just that I need to be in the right mood for it. So not much else to say.

Mashiro Iro Symphony (7)

As a whole this has been a rather pleasant series and I like all the girls so far. Sure, it's not one of those life-changing visual novels that makes you realize your life has meaning. However, I don't think it was ever meant to be. If the anime is any indication anyway.

Since we're past the half way point, it's obvious they'll be getting ready to start paving the path for an ending arc. Hopefully, they'll be able to handle the paving of that path in a reasonable manner and that the destination will actually fit the path as well.


Shinryaku!? Ika Musume (7)

There has been the occasional weaker segment, but over all this second season feels like it's on par with the first. Or at least my memory of the first. One thing that does help this season is the Kiyomi group. Their occasional appearances have been fun. The more of them the better. In any case, being on par with the first is essentially a positive thing in this case.

Ben-To (8)

Can I get myself a serving of Asebi? Because she's wonderful! Wait, that sounds wrong. So the cast has expanded and several other girls have proven their value. Such as Ayame, Asebi, Kiku, Kyou, and Kyou. Who knew battles over lunch could be so epic?

If I had any complaint, it would be You. It's not so much that I dislike You/Yoh as a character. It's more that some of the jokes involving him do feel a bit forced. The type that often feel forced for any show involving some form of fanservice.

Even with that issue, the series continues to be enjoyable because of the very nature of it and because of the girls.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (8)

So the cast has expanded and this is definitely a good thing. Because the new additions to the series, both female and male have been good for the show. That being said, right now I'm leaning towards Kobato as the favorite. Especially after certain moments. What? I never said what they were. This has definitely been a wonderful series. Even if one character sometimes goes a bit too far.

Working'!! (8)

I highly approve of the increased focus on Aoi that this series has had. I also approve of some of the new additions to the series. Such as Mahiru's classmates who better appear again and characters like Mitsuki. Yes, the series continues to work very well for me.

Now then back to thinking about how lovely Popura is. Yes, even if her role is kind of limited for a "lead female", she still remains my favorite. It's err the pony tail. Yeah, that's it!

Shakugan no Shana III (2)

I don't understand why, but I'm having a lot of trouble getting in the mood to watch the series. Maybe it's because of the tone the first two episodes set up. It's hard to explain without spoiling, but let's use an analogy.

I've got it, directions. It would be like the series is traveling "North" for now and you know the traveling North is important to the show, yet you feel until there's sign of the series traveling "East" that you might as well just hold off.

Chihayafuru (7)

Apparently, Karuta is all about being dramatic! At least, that's what the show is telling me. Sometimes, the show tries too hard to sell itself. I like Chihaya and all, but she is part of the reason I say the show tries too hard sometime.

Still I do like the addition of Kana, she's wonderful. And it does have its fun moments. I just wish there are more girls involved. Darn it, Chihaya and Kana are not enough. Even if Kana is glorious.

Tamayura ~hitotose~ (9)

The more I watch of this, the more I'm glad it was given the TV series it deserved. It's been so wonderful. I love the feel it has. I love the "senses' theme. The girls of the show are wonderful. The additions to the cast have been quite effective.

Also, it reminds me of shows like Aria and Sketchbook ~full colors~ Given the staff involved that's not much of a surprise. Surprise or not, what matter is that reminding me of those two shows is good thing.

The only flaw I can see for the show is the fact it's not licensed yet. Although I fully expect this to at best get a sub-only DVD release. Although maybe a miracle will happen. The Hoboro Owner demands it!

~Dropped~
Maken-Ki (2)
UN-GO (2)

~Not Yet Tried~ (Note this is just for reference, it does not mean I'll try anything)
Fate/Zero
Mirai Nikki
Gundam Age
Anything that was forgotten.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That should about cover it and I'll probably save the next update for when some of these series start winding down because they won't be heading into Winter.

In any case, I should really take a serious look at this list and see if I can prune more series from the list. I don't want to drop for the sake of dropping, but at the same time I don't want to finish everything just for the sake of finishing it. Contradictory? I know.

I guess I need to come up with some criteria. I guess there's also the idea of relying on spoilers and maybe saving some shows for "after" sessions. Where I don't bother with even considering anymore of them until after the show is over and I can gauge from comments if there is any reason to bother.

[Glamrgrl104]

Initial D episodes 1-4- AWESOME... it starts out nothing special but two episodes later it gets you hooked on it. I've always loved racing movies and games. This doesn't disappoint.

Hetalia paint it white movie- Hilarious as Hetalia should be, but it shows mostly clips from previous seasons and the new characters were briefly stuck in there. Still pretty good; I can't wait until season 3 comes out!

[something]

9/18/2011 update! (http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?p=1958176#post1958176)

Okay, it's not really over but it seems impossible for anything to top Idolmaster for me at this point, or for Penguindrum to break into top tier (my imports are locked in now) and I tend to forget to update seasons when there's only 1-2 two-cour shows left, so let's just wrap this up now.

R2 Import Tier
(01)　　The Idolmaster - ▲2 - 20 eps - Episode 20 was one of the most amazing things I've seen in anime. A lot of my top scenes end up involving music it seems. There were some dips in the last 9 episodes, but only very very few. The mid-season concert was phenomenal, the Ritsuko and Chihaya stories were as good or even better. The only episode that really disappointed me was Hibiki's - they phoned that one in, goddamn. Such a shame too because she's one of my favorites. With episode 20 out of the way I feel like the emotional peak has been reached, but seeing some 961 comeuppance in the final episodes should be satisfying. Off to watch 21-22 right now! [Import - Already ordered.]

(02)　　Usagi Drop - ▼1 - 11 eps / complete - [Import - Already ordered.]

(03)　　Yuru Yuri - ▼1 - 12 eps / complete - SECOND SEASON NOW. [Import - Already ordered.]

(04)　　Natsume Yuujin-chou San - ◄0► - 13 eps / complete - While it ended without resolving much of anything, that had no negative impact on my evaluation of the show seeing as how the fourth season was announced well before the third ended. I demand lots and lots of Reiko in Shi! The massive lack of her was the only real fault with the third season, but it was made up for by some really great development for Takashi and his friends. Although Jun still gets ignored... [Import - Already ordered.]


Second Tier
(05)　　Mawaru Penguindrum - ◄0► - 20 eps - Uhh how does one summarize this show? I'm too lazy to try, but it's really darn good. Enough that it needs to be separated in its own "not quite import but way ahead of the next series below it" tier. I will say that Ringo is my favorite character right now, easily. This is the sort of show in which I can have a hard time really connecting to a character as a "favorite", but she's definitely there now. Only recently have I really felt like Himari became complex enough to dig into as a character (rather than just something adorable), so she has a chance of winning depending on how things go. Oh and like Kanba more than Shouma, who annoyed me a few eps ago, though he's kind of over it now. A strong ending would be a wonderful thing with this show... they've started to tie many disparate plot threads together, and the ending will make it all or nothing for me, I feel.


Third Tier
(06)　　Uta no☆Prince-sama♪ Maji Love 1000%! - ▲2 - 13 eps / complete - Such a solid show from start to finish. Wasn't expecting to rate it #6 on the season, but A1 really made sure to do everything right.

(07)　　Kamisama Dolls - ▲2 - 13 eps / complete - Ah, put this down with Dantalian for shows that need sequels but sold like crap and won't get them. This one didn't end badly, but it sure didn't end conclusively. But when the story isn't over, you kind of can't. Well, it was pretty good all in all.

(08)　　Dantalian no Shoka - ▼2 - 12 eps / complete - Ended deently, but there was one really fail episode in there before the end. It's just a real shame that we won't get more of the story, since it flopped so tremendously badly. Still the best thing Gainax has done since Gurren Lagann (last ep of Hanamaru made me kinda bitter), although I acknowledge that's not saying all that much. Still, Ono Daisuke and Sawashiro Miyuki need to star opposite each other more often.


The Rest
(09)　　Ikoku Meiro no Croisée - ▼2 - 12 eps / complete - Ehhhhhh... I wanted to like this way way more. Thought it would be an import, it ended up being... okay. It's all Claude's fault, basically. The Alice & Yune show would have totally been an import.

(10)　　No.6 - ▲2 - 11 eps / complete


OVAs, Specials, other oddities
moved to Fall update


Dropped:
Nekogami Yaoyorozu - 7 eps - I've got nothing against the show. I just got too far behind and it was low priority enough that it got he axe. Sorry, Shamo.
Sacred Seven - 6 eps - Sort of similar to the above I guess. It was okay... but not okay enough to last when I had to cut.
Kami-sama no Memo-chou - 6 eps
Mayo Chiki! - 3 eps
Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi - 1 ep
R-15 - 1 ep
Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise!! - 1 ep
Busou Shinki Moon Angel - 1 ep


Still need/plan to try (may not have aired):
none


(Blah blah disclaimer, the number on a tier is not at all indicative of a show's absolute quality, merely its quality relative to the other shows on the list).

Idolmaster is quite possibly #2 of the year right now. Madoka > Idolmaster > Usagi = AnoHana > Hourou > Nichijou? I guess those top my list from the first three seasons. I don't think anything from Fall is in there yet, but some could be. Hat trick for noitaminA, it seems.

I sure dropped a lot, but that's fine, no harm in trying lots of stuff. And jeeze, remind me not to wait so long to do one of these updates next time, it gets hard to remember my impressions after a while...

[something]

I wanted to do this a week or two ago, but I've tried an ep of almost everything I intend to watch so this isn't a bad time.

R2 Import Tier
(01)　　Working'!! - ▲3 - 10 eps - After catching up on the last four episodes tonight, I know that nothing can beat Working'!! in the first cour of Fall. Some two cour show might overtake it, but that leaves only Shana and Mirai Nikki being at all likely. I just love these characters way too much, and a major focus on Yamada in recent episodes makes that even better. Her and Popura are neck and neck for my favorite character in the show. I think Yamada just barely wins... I WANT TO ADOPT YAMADA AS MY DAUGHTER! Or imouto. I don't care. I just want to spoil her and feed her cake and buy her presents. <3 How can the characters in the show not feel the same? She's perfect in absolutely every way! And just wants a little love... ;_; [Import - Already ordered.]

(02)　　Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai - ▼1 - 9 eps - SENA x KOBATO NOW. At first, I expected to like Yozora more than Sena because I knew Sena was more popular (and like Kuroneko has her own spinoff manga) and there was a decent amount of animosity towards Yozora among the fanbase. So I figured it was an OreImo-like situation, and personally I liked Kirino the most in that show, so I was all, fuck the haters, I'll probably like Yozora best anyway! But in Haganai, it's more like while the protagonist/more popular character dynamic is the same, the actual character personalities, so far as they can be paralleled, are flipped. And Sena is the Kirino... and I love her. I like Yozora too, think she's fascinating, but she does go too far in a way that characters like Kirino and Haruhi or arch-tsunderes never did for me. For the latter there was a degree of an accidental nature to their actions. Saying things they didn't mean, creating situations they didn't intend, and because they didn't know how to dig out of it, they reacted angrily and dug themselves deeper. Not saying that's a role model character trait, but it made me sympathize with how they really felt underneath. An essential trait to one of the forms of moe I really get behind. It's not that Yozora doesn't get into that as well, she totally does, but I think a lot of the comedy written for her relies too heavily on being just plain mean-spirited, full stop. I understand Yozora as a character and think she's more complex than most of the others and wouldn't necessarily write her differently... but if I have to choose between her and Sena, it's pretty easy. Sena all the way. Although Kobato is possibly my favorite character in the show right now. Also:UNIVERSEEEEEEEEE!!!! [Import - It would need to spectacularly self-destruct to not get imported at this point.]

(03)　　Shakugan no Shana III - ◄0► - 8 eps - The action is only now really starting, but the setup has been very thorough and deliberate so I can't complain. I'm not necessarily over my dissatisfaction with how Yuuji has been handled, but I know we got what we got and just need to make the best of it. Shana's own emotional turmoil continues to be very well depicted (even when she's not doing much) and Rebecca is a great addition to the cast. Episode 8 finally blew things up (in more ways than one) and got the plot really moving. Ought to be awesome frmo here on out. [Import - I feel like I won't know for sure until I see the final episode, but I ened to decide before then and I'm almost certainly going to get it.]


Possible Import Tier
(04)　　Mirai Nikki - ▼2 - 6 eps - The infinite glory of Gasai Yuno expands, forevermore, like the universe. Especially in recent episodes. But... horror anime. Dunno, just not the kind of thing I import. And how to compare this to something like Working'!!? So difficult. In the end, odds are my money will go to something else, but I'll remain really impressed with this show. Certainly I don't want every show to be a light comedy, and this suits my needs for something different extremely well. [Import - Dunno.]

(05)　　Tamayura ~hitotose~ - ▲1 - 8 eps - Maon episodes. SatoJun, you know how to make me import something. But really, everything in this show has been emotionally moving and beautiful in every way. [Import - In a weird way, the frontrunner of the "possible" tier. That's the bias for importing lighter shows.]

(06)　　Shinryaku!? Ikamusume - ▲1 - 8 eps - It's still Ikamusume. I still really want to import it. But can I? PS: More Tomomi fanart please, Japan. [Import - Arrrgh, I wish. Very little chance unless Tamayura implodes or I decide to buy five.]

(07)　　Fate/Zero - ▼2 - 10 eps - I have a feeling I'd increase this a bit more if they'd hurry up and get rid of one of the Servants. There are characters you love to hate, and then just characters you hate. Everything else about the show is really top notch though, except for the disappointing CG Berserker. Oh and ep 10 was amazing. Riiiiin! [Import - Probably not, I'm really not sure. There's too much this season.]


Third Tier
(08)　　Bakuman 2 - ◄0► - 10 eps - Still don't like Mashiro and Miho. That should be a pretty crippling flaw in the show, but everyone else is likable enough to offset it. The big twist in 9 is welcome for me. I want to see how the show is forced to change things up now, and 10 starts that.

(09)　　Persona 4 - ▲6 - 6 eps - Yukiko's story was leaps and bounds better than the first three Persona-granting episodes, and then we followed it with a good social links ep and a good new character ep. Looking forward to seeing more when a non-shit version comes out.

(10)　　Chihayafuru - ▲1 - 8 eps - So I go from hating Taichi and liking Wataya to hating Wataya and liking Taichi. Two of the three new character are of no interest to me at all, but Kana-chan is loooooooooove. Short girls with big boobs are always welcome.

(11)　　Mashiro-iro Symphony - ▼2 - 9 eps - Ehh, not much that can be said that isn't a spoiler. But I really liked Airi once they got over her initial hang-ups.

(12)　　Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon - ◄NEW► - 7 eps - Started out kind of lukewarm on the show. It got a bit bitter as time went on and episode six was damn good, easily the best episode (thanks to Suzu, the best character!). I have a couple episodes to catch up on, which would help a lot in forming a better opinion, but couldn't fit it in this weekend.

(13)　　Ben-To - ◄0► - 7 eps - Would be multiple places higher if there were canon yuri involving Ume. Oh well.


Fourth Tier
(14)　　Kidou Senshi Gundam AGE - ▼4 - 10 eps - The arc from 6-8 was pretty bad, but episode 9 was good. Emily is what's keeping me going right now. She's not just cute, she's a really interesting character. She's definitely had the most detailed character growth so far.

(15)　　Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! - ▼1 - 5 eps - In danger of a drop for time since I'm so behind, but we'll see.

(16)　　C³ - ▼4 - 5 eps - Same as above.


OVAs, Specials, other oddities
Hunter x Hunter (2011) - 10 eps
Fairy Tail - 108 eps - S-rank test arc continues to be really enjoyable.
Suite Precure - 32 eps
Morita-san wa Mukuchi - 20 eps


Dropped:
Kimi to Boku - 3 eps - It's okay, but okay isn't enough this season. I wouldn't mind finishing it but there's just no way.
Guilty Crown - 2 eps - After two episodes of being bored by Inori and the protagonist, I could tell it was time to bail. I do miss Tsugumi's ass though.
UN-GO - 1 eps - Not enough of interest in the opener to fit in my reduced viewing time.
Phi Brain - Kami no Puzzle - 1 ep
Maken-ki! - 0.5 eps


Still need/plan to try (may not have aired):
none

(Blah blah disclaimer, the number on a tier is not at all indicative of a show's absolute quality, merely its quality relative to the other shows on the list).

Damn, 32 episodes watched this weekend and I'm still behind. Sheesh. Haganai and Working are pulling ahead of the pack, Shana is keeping up partly on the strength of nostalgia and being a third season, but I think it's getting by on its own strengths too. I'm trying to keep to 4 imports this season so the 2nd tier is a bit rough to rank, since only one can get an import, unless I go for 5. But ehhhhh... I think I can do 4 and not regret it too badly. I have a feeling Tamayura will come out on top and grab the last spot, we'll see.

[Fencedude]

(16)　　C³ - ▼4 - 5 eps - Same as above.

Forget Majikoi, but do catch up on C3.

[Damius]

(16)　　C³ - ▼4 - 5 eps - Same as above.

Forget Majikoi

I need to learn to drop series... After that episode 6 I felt...after all this, I don't want the image of episode 6 to be last image imprint on my brain, must watch all.

[superdry]

(16)　　C³ - ▼4 - 5 eps - Same as above.

Forget Majikoi, but do catch up on C3.

Agreed. The first half was fun, but the second half is a WTF. I'll finish the show since there's only three more episodes left I need to watch.

This sums up my sentiment regarding Majikoi right now. Quoted from one of my favorite anime bloggers:

Well, how about you call Jack Bauer and let him deal with the situation?

[HitokiriShadow]

Fairy Tail - 108 eps - S-rank test arc continues to be really enjoyable.

Part of me still wants to catch up on this, but I'm 40+ episodes behind and I just don't have the time. It would have been feasible back when I was only a dozen or so behind and would have done so, if not for Crunchyrolls obnoxious 30 day time limit and having to hunt down the episodes to download was a pain.



Guilty Crown - 2 eps - After two episodes of being bored by Inori and the protagonist, I could tell it was time to bail. I do miss Tsugumi's ass though.


You made the right call.

Tsugumi is still the only thing in the entire show worth watching, and she's lucky if she gets even two lines an episode. The rest of the show actually gets worse. It's painfully obvious that the starting point for the show was "let's get ~12 year old boys to watch Noitamina" and then added in a bunch of things they thought would be attractive to them (super powers, giant robots, tits, foreigners invade Japan) and then had to come up with a story on the fly to try to tie all of these elements together.

And Shu is hitting new levels of male protagonist terribleness. He won't tell a classmate that he likes Inori, so said classmate confesses while Shu is tailing them, so Shu responds by drawing out his void just because he's irritated and wants to hurt him. At the end of the episode, they both basically say "You know, I never really liked you to begin with" and that somehow results in them making up with each other.


Adding to the chorus of "catch up on C3" though.

[MelancholicMariya]

Guilty Crown - 2 eps - After two episodes of being bored by Inori and the protagonist, I could tell it was time to bail. I do miss Tsugumi's ass though.


You made the right call.

Tsugumi is still the only thing in the entire show worth watching, and she's lucky if she gets even two lines an episode. The rest of the show actually gets worse. It's painfully obvious that the starting point for the show was "let's get ~12 year old boys to watch Noitamina" and then added in a bunch of things they thought would be attractive to them (super powers, giant robots, tits, foreigners invade Japan) and then had to come up with a story on the fly to try to tie all of these elements together.

And Shu is hitting new levels of male protagonist terribleness. He won't tell a classmate that he likes Inori, so said classmate confesses while Shu is tailing them, so Shu responds by drawing out his void just because he's irritated and wants to hurt him. At the end of the episode, they both basically say "You know, I never really liked you to begin with" and that somehow results in them making up with each other.


I've honestly never watched an anime which had such an incredibly fun, promising opening episode which in the next episode completely fell to pieces instantly. I don't know how it messed up so bad. I know it's all personal opinions and some people like mindless fun more than others, but it just got all weird in a not so fun way. But, hey, if girls is your thing it's got some pretty girls in it, I don't know.

I haven't watched it after the first few episodes but the budget was pretty damn high, not sure if it's still that good looking now.



On a slightly unrelated note, I can't seem to get back into Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. Like Guilty Crown I enjoyed it a lot up until a point and then I just couldn't get back into it for what ever reason, but unlike Guilty Crown, Haganai didn't fall to pieces in episode 2. It's weird because usually I like stuff like this and I can totally see it's appeal and why people on this forum adore it but no matter how hard I try, after giving it such praise for the first few episodes, I just can't watch it anymore.

Though, that aside, I have felt that SHAFT did a better job with Buriki's character designs in Denpa Onna. I've felt this since it started airing.

One show I've surprisingly been enjoying is Ben-To, that's a kinda unique show. Pretty bananas but unique.

I don't need to say anything on Persona 4 and Fate/Zero other than they're my favourites of this season. First time in a while my favourite two shows have been the two which will probably sell the most.

I just want Nisemonogatari to air. I'm done with this season. I'm unreasonably hyped for Nisemonogatari.

[Suwako Moriya]

(16)　　C³ - ▼4 - 5 eps - Same as above.

Forget Majikoi, but do catch up on C3.

That's what I'm thinking of doing myself. Although doing the former is easier than the latter.

It's not that C3 is a bad show, but I have to be in the right mood for stuff like that. It's more my fault than the show itself.

As for Majikoi, dropping it would save me time for more important things and there would be no risk of experiencing more horror.

[Suwako Moriya]

All right then, the purpose of this mini-update is to work on deciding what series will be continued, what series will be put on hold, and what series will be dropped. I need to do this in order to make time for more important things.

Suite Precure (41)

The verdict for this one is "Continue" because it's an effective series that's part of my favorite Magical Girl Franchise. It makes me Smile! See what I did there?

Idolm@ster (22)

Definitely continue because the Idols are wonderful. Sure we had a few issues, but nothing that ruins the show.

Jewel Pet Sunshine (9)

Continue because the show is almost like a stab at the past two series and the ending song is better than some shows I've seen.

Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream (17)

Continue because err MARS is better than Jupiter!

Kimi to Boku (4)

Drop because sadly Masaki is not enough to save the show. And even if I were to watch more of it, I'd just skip forward to avoid being ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Persona 4 (9)

Continue because I have to rise to the occasion. Guess which character might win me over!

Guilty Crown (7)

So how long is this supposed to be? One or two cour? I'm going to drop it for now and maybe come back to it later, but only if trust worthy people indicate that the show actually turns around.

Phi Brain (9)

Continue because the utterly ridiculous nature is glorious! It will be sort of my train wreck for the season. Plus, Nonoha!

Maji De Watashi ni Koishinasai! (6)

Dropped because episode six was the last straw, and it's reliant on being a ridiculous fanservice show to sell itself, but I have shows that do ridiculous much better. Also, Miyako is just annoying.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon (9)

Continue because it's one of those shows that gradually gets better.

C3 (5)

On hold until I am in the right mood for it.

Mashiro Iro Symphony (7)

Continue, but I might just wait until it's over and catch up with the rest. So maybe on hold.

Shinryaku!? Ika Musume (7)

Continue because it's been fun to invade.

Ben-To (8)

Continue because I'm hungry. Sorry, I don't have time for fancy details.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (8)

Continue because it may be my favorite none-continuation series of the season. Also, Kobato is lovely.

Working'!! (8)

Continue because it err I'll spare you the obvious joke.

Shakugan no Shana III (2)

On hold until I'm in the right mood for it.

Chihayafuru (7)

Continue for the sake of Kana's chest.

Tamayura ~hitotose~ (10)

Continue because it's the favorite series of the season.

(Updated with the new entries to the drop section)

~Dropped~
Maken-Ki (2)
UN-GO (2)
Kimi to Boku (4)
Guilty Crown (7)
Maji De Watashi ni Koishinasai! (6)

(No real change here and I'm not going to bother with the maybe game for these shows. If I actually try any then I'll comment)

~Not Yet Tried~ (Note this is just for reference, it does not mean I'll try anything)
Fate/Zero
Mirai Nikki
Gundam Age
Anything that was forgotten.

[Suwako Moriya]

I need to learn to drop series... After that episode 6 I felt...after all this, I don't want the image of episode 6 to be last image imprint on my brain, must watch all.

We all need to learn to drop series. It's always a risk. You either miss out because the show might have become truly worthwhile or you end up having wasted more of your time.

I need to learn to drop series so I can have more time for better stuff. I mean there's stuff to re-watch in terms of anime, games to play, etc. I can't spend all my time on finishing each an every single show in the hopes the ones I find me will become good later.

[something]

Forget Majikoi, but do catch up on C3.That's what I'm thinking of doing myself. Although doing the former is easier than the latter.
As for Majikoi, dropping it would save me time for more important things and there would be no risk of experiencing more horror.
I actually highly enjoyed eps 1-5 (despite the ranking, it's mostly lower because it's been a while) so it's distressing to hear it be panned from 6 onward. Is it just 6 that's bad (I skimmed it and saw some really retarded mushroom jokes, so I can kinda see the problem) or are 7+ all that different from 1-5 too?

[Fencedude]

I actually highly enjoyed eps 1-5 (despite the ranking, it's mostly lower because it's been a while) so it's distressing to hear it be panned from 6 onward. Is it just 6 that's bad (I skimmed it and saw some really retarded mushroom jokes, so I can kinda see the problem) or are 7+ all that different from 1-5 too?

PLOT

And you know the drill when that happens.

But mostly, C3 is just vastly superior on every level. And you will thoroughly enjoy the new characters in the later arcs.

[Suwako Moriya]

Forget Majikoi, but do catch up on C3.That's what I'm thinking of doing myself. Although doing the former is easier than the latter.
As for Majikoi, dropping it would save me time for more important things and there would be no risk of experiencing more horror.
I actually highly enjoyed eps 1-5 (despite the ranking, it's mostly lower because it's been a while) so it's distressing to hear it be panned from 6 onward. Is it just 6 that's bad (I skimmed it and saw some really retarded mushroom jokes, so I can kinda see the problem) or are 7+ all that different from 1-5 too?

I have yet to watch 7+ and as of current have no plans to so, I can't comment on those. I can only speak for the first six episodes. In any case, the problem for me was this.

You had a first episode that felt a bit chaotic because it was trying to introduce as many people as possible. It then of course moved on to character focused episodes. Which wasn't too bad even if some characters were better than others.

I'm sure if some people saw episode 6, they'd be thinking "That's it? You were bothered by that? You're overreacting way too much" and they might in a lot of ways be right about that.

However here is the thing. I'm pretty sure you know what those mushrooms were meant to symbolize, right? I'm not a fan of such jokes and to make an entire episode dedicated around it was just too much. Especially when it was not funny.

It also doesn't help that while the first five episodes were decent in some ways, there were still elements like for example Miyako that started to bother. Miyako was fine at first, but she started to get tiring.

Also, at this point of the season I reach my own form of burn out. I don't burn out in the sense that I suddenly declare all anime sucks, slit my wrists and dive into a volcano to end it all.

No, I burn out in the sense that I lose the energy and drive to watch everything of the season under the sun. Thus I start seek ways to lighten the load and this leads to flaws become more noticeable to give me a reason to give up on stuff.

Not that I watch every series of the season. Some series I gave up on before they even started for a variety of reasons. However I try enough that eventually it does lead to decision making.

[Suwako Moriya]

PLOT

And you know the drill when that happens.

So I take it this means Majikoi is becoming one of those "Killed By Plot" shows? You know we need a good image to symbolize that.

[HitokiriShadow]

Guilty Crown (7)

So how long is this supposed to be? One or two cour? I'm going to drop it for now and maybe come back to it later, but only if trust worthy people indicate that the show actually turns around.


Two cour. I don't think there's any hope for it getting better at this point. Maybe for one episode, if it focuses on Tsugumi, but not the show in general.

[Suwako Moriya]

Guilty Crown (7)

So how long is this supposed to be? One or two cour? I'm going to drop it for now and maybe come back to it later, but only if trust worthy people indicate that the show actually turns around.


Two cour. I don't think there's any hope for it getting better at this point. Maybe for one episode, if it focuses on Tsugumi, but not the show in general.

Ah, I figured as much, but need confirmation. In any case, in a show that's actually good, two cour would be a positive. Especially if they make good use of the extra time.

However I get the feeling this show won't make good use of the extra cour. Also, doesn't help the void of the week stuff isn't working for me. To put in perspective.

I actually liked seeing the Summon of the week in FFU because it was neat to see what the saying was going to be. I look forward to seeing the girls in Pretty Cure transform each week. So on and so forth.

Yet, I found myself after awhile just not *****ing care about the void of the week at all.

The show would definitely be better if Tsugumi was the lead, but sadly we're stuck with Shu and I can think of far better male characters this season. Which is not that hard because Shu is lackluster.

One thing that really annoyed me was Inori. A wonderful designed wasted on a character that will probably spend 99% of the series in her current state. Every time there was a sign of hope, the show essentially went...

"Ha, Ha **** you, we were just kidding"

And I've had enough of that. Does Inori even qualify as a character?

I know some will be like "Gai is the male people should focus on", but guess what? I don't care about him either.

[Suwako Moriya]

C3 (9)

All right, I decided I was in the right mood for it. I highly approve of the new additions to the series such as Kuroe. So adorable. This means, I now can confirm catching up with this is a good idea.

And by the right mood, I mean I found time to catch up with the show by removing some dead weight from the schedule.

[Damius]

Guilty Crown (7)

So how long is this supposed to be? One or two cour? I'm going to drop it for now and maybe come back to it later, but only if trust worthy people indicate that the show actually turns around.


Two cour. I don't think there's any hope for it getting better at this point. Maybe for one episode, if it focuses on Tsugumi, but not the show in general.

Why this is the only NotAmia show up to now to be two cour...There is many better NotAmia show out there...

[something]

Why this is the only NotAmia show up to now to be two cour...There is many better NotAmia show out there...
It's uncommon, but there have been a few. The others were:
Honey & Clover S1
Nodame S1
Shiki

GC is only the fourth, and only the second in the last 4+ years.

[Damius]

Why this is the only NotAmia show up to now to be two cour...There is many better NotAmia show out there...
It's uncommon, but there have been a few. The others were:
Honey & Clover S1
Nodame S1
Shiki

GC is only the fourth, and only the second in the last 4+ years.

Well, thanks for that. They still could have choose something better! Usagi Drop would have been a PERFECT choice!

[Draneor]

At first, I expected to like Yozora more than Sena because I knew Sena was more popular (and like Kuroneko has her own spinoff manga) and there was a decent amount of animosity towards Yozora among the fanbase. So I figured it was an OreImo-like situation, and personally I liked Kirino the most in that show, so I was all, fuck the haters, I'll probably like Yozora best anyway! But in Haganai, it's more like while the protagonist/more popular character dynamic is the same, the actual character personalities, so far as they can be paralleled, are flipped. And Sena is the Kirino... and I love her.

I don't recall a lot of Yozora hate prior to the anime. Certainly, many fans of the anime hate her--as I unfortunately expected--but I don't recall really much animosity. Kind of like OreImo. Granted, unlike OreImo, I did vastly prefer Sena about mid-way through the first book so I wouldn't have taken it personally.

It's not that Yozora doesn't get into that as well, she totally does, but I think a lot of the comedy written for her relies too heavily on being just plain mean-spirited, full stop. I understand Yozora as a character and think she's more complex than most of the others and wouldn't necessarily write her differently...

To defend Yozora, I don't think she's "mean-spirited." Rather, I think she is afraid of actually being friends with someone and thus pushes them away. On occasion, you can see rare glimpses that she does want to be friends with Sena (and others). Of course, just like every other character, it's her own fault that she doesn't have any friends. But, in a way, it also isn't entirely. I guess what I'm getting at is I think Yozora is a character that those of us with few friends can relate to (and thus feeding into the self-loathing aspect). The characters in Haganai are flawed, like most of us. I am, perhaps, a bit biased but I firmly believe that even flawed people deserve to have friends.

[something]

I don't recall a lot of Yozora hate prior to the anime.
I guess I'd just read a lot of comments before about how superior Sena was. Mostly in JP blog comments for news stories between announcement and airing, a number of which were less than flattering for Yozora, from what I could make out.

To defend Yozora, I don't think she's "mean-spirited." Rather, I think she is afraid of actually being friends with someone and thus pushes them away.
An insecurity that manifests as outright sadistic bullying of others. Which is amusing in its own way, and provides some rather hilarious scenes, so all the better for entertainment value. But it's clearly hypocritical (she despises bullies, yet is a pro bully herself even if she might not grasp the hypocrisy), and it's something she'll need to overcome if she really wants friends. Even - or especially - the one friend she most desires.

I am, perhaps, a bit biased but I firmly believe that even flawed people deserve to have friends.
I never disagreed. Nothing I've said about Yozora means I don't feel bad for her when we see her alone, checking her phone for texts. Or feeling left out when Kodaka is with Sena. Or leaving an outing prematurely because she can't take being in public.

[bear]

To defend Yozora, I don't think she's "mean-spirited." Rather, I think she is afraid of actually being friends with someone and thus pushes them away.
An insecurity that manifests are outright sadistic bullying of others. Which is amusing in its own way, and provides some rather hilarious scenes, so all the better for entertainment value. But it's clearly hypocritical (she despises bullies, yet is a pro bully herself even if she might not grasp the hypocrisy), and it's something she'll need to overcome if she really wants friends. Even - or especially - the one friend she most desires.

Usually with a character like Yozora, for me, it's a question of why she is the way she is. What transpired in her life after Kodaka left? If that was what she saw as the way of the world (bully or be bullied) then it's understandable how she could do what she does but not grasp the hypocrisy. In fact, the emotion she had when she denied being a bully supports my belief that she bullies because that is her main defense mechanism. She does it to prevent others doing it to her. If I can see why someone is the way they are even if I disprove of it, I can be sympathetic to their plight.

In Oriemo, both Kirino and Kuroneko can be nasty to others, but the writers didn't show us anything to explain how Kirino wound up acting the way she did while I felt as if I understood why Kuroneko did. So I didn't hate Kirino but found it hard to empathize with her.

On the other hand, after meeting Sena's dad....

[superdry]

In Oriemo, both Kirino and Kuroneko can be nasty to others, but the writers didn't show us anything to explain how Kirino wound up acting the way she did

Ah...probably the greatest mystery of the whole series...the full backstory of Kirino. I wait the day that Fushimi writes that part of the story.

Oh yea...I particularly don't like Yozora because she's a little too surly for my tastes even though her teasing, on the border bullying is highly amusing because it shows her wit which is a plus.

[Glamrgrl104]

Initial D-episodes 5-11- AWESOME!!! this series is addicting. I might pick up stage two and three in SAVE edition rather than getting it from Itunes, and then fourth stage from amazon or rightstuf. I love the older animation and there is never a dull moment.

[Buckeye]

Next up is K-On!, a show that I am currently in the middle of rewatching that I will be finishing.

And I finished my rewatch of K-On! after receiving the BDs for this show. It pretty much is mostly about music and moe, but one that does a great job on character development. It's Lucky Star without the craziness. The characters are so great in this show, and it's no wonder there is so much fan following for this show. Now I'm hoping that Bandai can get the second season licensed soon.

Next up, I don't know what I will see next as far as new stuff goes. I'm debating between Mushishi, Blassreiter, and Heroic Age for the show I will start next.

[Glamrgrl104]

Initial D-episodes 12-19- AWESOME!! this show is addicting :3

Wagnaria!! aka working S2!! Episode 1- Much love for this series and I hope NIS releases this season on dvd.

Nichijou-episode 10-Hilarious, I still don't get what is going on with this series, but it is very entertaining. I know this was licensed a while ago so where is the dvds that should come out?

Full Moon episode 2- AWW why did Viz cancel this series?, they were going to Dub it now not a chance.

[MelancholicMariya]

So, a few pages ago I was basically panning Guilty Crown, but I started thinking I was incredibly unfair. I've given the show another chance, watching from episode 1 again, and I'm actually enjoying it more than I did.

From the PV's I was expecting a ground breaking story, and it's not that. It's just dumb moody fun. I'm enjoying it, probably more than I should be. It's silly.

[Damius]

From the PV's I was expecting a ground breaking story, and it's not that. It's just dumb moody fun. I'm enjoying it, probably more than I should be. It's silly.

Expectations are for quite a lot to make you love-----hate a series. I don't have time to restart the series, but I would be curious, if I would feel the same... For now, I keep watching it without any expectations.

[Glamrgrl104]

Steins:Gate- EPISODE 2-AWESOMENESS!! this is so much better than Chaos head. I can't wait until this comes out.

Full Moon-episode 3- Cuteness.. :3

[bear]

Steins:Gate- EPISODE 2-AWESOMENESS!! this is so much better than Chaos head. I can't wait until this comes out.

Full Moon-episode 3- Cuteness.. :3
Oh, you have no idea.....

[Glamrgrl104]

Squid Girl-episodes 1-6- This is seriously the weirdest anime that I've ever seen lol. I don't think I'd want to buy but it is pretty funny. I think I prefer SGT frog though. I will review when I've seen the rest.

[bci110]

Squid Girl-episodes 1-5- This is seriously the weirdest anime that I've ever seen lol. I don't think I'd want to buy but it is pretty funny.

Aw, but that'll hamper Squiddie's plans at world domination :P.

But yeah, it is a pretty weird and hilarious anime. Squiddie's pretty cool and awesome.

[Orochimaru]

Squid Girl-episodes 1-5- This is seriously the weirdest anime that I've ever seen lol.

Watch Excel Saga.

[Orochimaru]

Subbed unless otherwise noted.

Currently airing:

Bleach (dubbed on adult swim): Same as always. This filler arc's kind of decent for Bleach filler, but that's not saying much. Looking forward to canon.

C3: Dropped/on hold at 6 episodes. I'll probably still watch it eventually, once an uncensored version is available.

Hunter x Hunter: Pretty much the same. There are some aspects of this remake that I'm a little disappointed by, but it's still good.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon: Still taking a while to really get started... but still good. I decided not to watch on anime network. I don't really mind waiting a week for better quality.

Mirai Nikki: Niconico decided I needed to pay for this too, and I said fuck it. It's a good show and I'd kind of like to keep up with it, but considering that waiting will yield an uncensored version, it's not worth watching it now unless it's convenient. Unlike C3, though, I'm quite sure I'll return to it eventually.

Ika Musume season 2: Still good.

Other:

Fairy Tail: I have mixed feelings about Fairy Tail so far. I like a lot of the characters and generally enjoy watching it, but in some ways it's disappointing. It lacks a lot of the things I tend to like in shounen anime (like a plot line, for one, and cool techniques), and the enemies are kind of hard to take seriously a lot of the time, and the ridiculous amount of spoilers in the OPs, and the fact that almost no one ever dies. Also I think there are more cliches than usual and I don't like the lack of blood.:sweat: That sounds really negative, but I don't hate the show by any means... it's not like I'm going to drop it or anything... I had just hoped for a little better.

Gokujou Seitokai: Rino is Exodia!!! I can't believe I haven't finished this yet.

Recently finished:

Nurarihyon no Mago: I really liked this. It's fairly generic in a lot of ways, but I like the characters and it's just a really fun show. It's kind of like what Kekkaishi would be if it were good. And both of the EDs are hilarious and awesome. I've heard season 2 is better... hopefully so.

Code Geass (dubbed) (rewatch): Awesome. Much better than I remember the first season being. Looking forward to R2, although I won't watch that immediately.

Next up: Basilisk. It's just that time of year.

[Glamrgrl104]

Squid Girl-episodes 1-6- This is seriously the weirdest anime that I've ever seen lol. I don't think I'd want to buy but it is pretty funny. I think I prefer SGT frog though. I will review when I've seen the rest.

Squid Girl Episodes 6-12- Although a short series it is quite good, funny and really out there.Overall give it a 9 cute and interesting plot, likable characters, and it is pretty funny.

[bci110]

Squid Girl-episodes 1-6- This is seriously the weirdest anime that I've ever seen lol. I don't think I'd want to buy but it is pretty funny. I think I prefer SGT frog though. I will review when I've seen the rest.

Squid Girl Episodes 6-12- Although a short series it is quite good, funny and really out there.Overall give it a 9 cute and interesting plot, likable characters, and it is pretty funny.

Since you liked the first season, I highly recommend that you watch the second season pretty soon :) .

[Damius]

Squid Girl-episodes 1-6- This is seriously the weirdest anime that I've ever seen lol. I don't think I'd want to buy but it is pretty funny. I think I prefer SGT frog though. I will review when I've seen the rest.

Squid Girl Episodes 6-12- Although a short series it is quite good, funny and really out there.Overall give it a 9 cute and interesting plot, likable characters, and it is pretty funny.

Since you liked the first season, I highly recommend that you watch the second season pretty soon :) .

Ika-san asks for it to be tonight or at the latest tomorrow!

[Buckeye]

Next up, I don't know what I will see next as far as new stuff goes. I'm debating between Mushishi, Blassreiter, and Heroic Age for the show I will start next.

And from that short list, I decided to go with Heroic Age as the next series to watch and I am about halfway through at this point. In the meantime, I am finishing up Durarara with the final episode having aired last Saturday night.

[Damius]

Next up, I don't know what I will see next as far as new stuff goes. I'm debating between Mushishi, Blassreiter, and Heroic Age for the show I will start next.

And from that short list, I decided to go with Heroic Age as the next series to watch and I am about halfway through at this point. In the meantime, I am finishing up Durarara with the final episode having aired last Saturday night.

That makes me remember that I need to rewatch DRR! soon! I want a second season as well!

[Buckeye]

And from that short list, I decided to go with Heroic Age as the next series to watch and I am about halfway through at this point. In the meantime, I am finishing up Durarara with the final episode having aired last Saturday night.

I finished watching Heroic Age last night. It's a really nice show with interesting characters. The main selling point of this show is that it character designs are done by the same guy who did Gundam Seed. While the battle scenes in this show are not exactly the best, the stories behind the characters are really nice. The Nodos are interesting characters and are all well-developed.

Next up, I will be finishing Durarara today as the Adult Swim broadcast has just finished last week.

[Buckeye]

Next up, I will be finishing Durarara today as the Adult Swim broadcast has just finished last week.

And Durarara has been finished up. It was a show that was sort of hard to connect the dots until the relationships between the Yellow Scarves and the Dollars gets revealed, as well as a secret of one of the main characters. It had been a lot of disconnected chain of events that all converged nicely later on in the series. The characters are great and while it did not end the way I would have liked it to end, it does go out on the upswing.

Next up, my season will end once I finish the first season of Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere and Mashiroiro Symphony. The rest of the fall season shows continues on to the winter season.

[Buckeye]

Next up, my season will end once I finish the first season of Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere and Mashiroiro Symphony.

Mashiroiro Symphony was just completed tonight, and I must say that this show was a really pleasant surprise. I thought it was just going to be another bad anime adaptation of an eroge, but this one is better than most such adaptations of its kind. What makes it so good to watch was the lead character being down to earth and reasonable about most things, and that the girls see him as being someone they can rely on for support. That, and the fact that the fanservice that usually happens with these type of shows is minimal. It is pretty much limited to one episode with only a couple of scenes outside of that episode. It's mostly what a show like Fortune Arterial was last year and that it exceeds expectations (although far from being a masterpiece).

In wrapping up the season, I have one more episode of Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, Fate/Zero, and Guilty Crown remaining, as well as three episodes of Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing before wrapping up the season.

[Glamrgrl104]

Fairy Tail Vol.1- rewatch- This is an awesome series and is highly addicting lol.

Wagnaria!!- Season 2- EPisodes 5-11- A brilliant comedic anime, I just love it. I hope NIS licenses the rest on DVD.

[Buckeye]

In wrapping up the season, I have one more episode of Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, Fate/Zero, and Guilty Crown remaining, as well as three episodes of Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing before wrapping up the season.

I just finished watching Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere today. This show got off to a slow start with so many characters, so much nonsense, and too much going on to figure out what to make of this show. But once the storyline simplifies and the battles begin, it's a nice show to watch. The battle scenes are great and the character designs are great, which is why I was highly interested in this show in the first place and kept on watching. I looks forward to the second season coming this summer.

Only one more episode of Fate/Zero and Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing remain before I put a wrap on the season.

[superdry]

Since Fall season has pretty much ended...a quick round-up of what I've been watching.

Non-season stuff
1) Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi - I finished this a couple of weeks ago. It was a pretty fun watch. I like the different takes on fairy tale characters and what not. Overall the show wasn't very memorable (as evidenced that I don't remember too of it). At least Morino wasn't that terrible of a male lead. I can't remember any other anime where the male lead directly professes his love of the main female character outright in the first episode. Ryouko Ookami is definitely my type of girl so she definitely helped with my interest of the show.

Import? - I liked it enough that I decided to import it. Currently I have the first three volumes already.

2) Princess Lover! - Up to episode 11. Decided to watch this because I enjoyed one of the off-shoot mangas (Princess Lover: Eternal Love for my Lady). The first half was pretty fun, cute, and light-hearted. The second half is well...WTF is this shit doing in my harem anime! The whole terrorists and drama thing feel out of place and well forced - it forces Teppei to choose a girl in a ridiculous plot.

Import? - Very high chance of not unless the final episode redeems the crazy second-half arc.

3) The iDOLM@STER[/u] - Continuation from Summer 2011. Absolutely fantastic. The only lone problem was Hibiki's episode (if I rewatch the show I will skip that to show respect for one of my favorite iM@S characters). The last broadcast episode was done very well after having two drama heavy arcs (could have done without them back to back, but whatever). I would say this is my second show of the year after Steins;Gate.

Import? - Yup and I'm getting all of the Gravure 4 U bundles too. Can't pass this show up.

Fall Season stuff

1) Boku wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai - My most anticipated show of the Fall season. Very well done besides the dips in animation quality (ugh). As with most light novel adaptations that I try to follow, the anime did a good job adapting the source material. Everything was just plain fun and a riot to watch.

Import? - Definitely and I have the whole series on pre-order already.

2) Shakugan no Shana III - Second most anticipated show of the season. I have to watch it since I'm a huge fan of the series. I'm pretty much loving every episode. it's nice that JC Staff hasn't deviated from the overall story from the light novels in season 3, so that's a plus.

Import? - Already done and done.

3) Maken-ki - Generic, lots of fanservice and cliches. Mindless, dumb fun. Sucks that we spend 1- episode or so on silliness and then end the show with some major revelations. I doubt it'll get a second season. Haruko and Himegami definitely carried the series for me, too.

Import? - Surprisingly yes. I guess I actually want to see a second season animated, so I'll try and help out.

4) Majikoi - Love me Seriously - Just like Princess Lover, what the fuck is this shit doing in my harem anime? The first-half was fun and light-hearted to watch as each girl pretty much got their own episode. The second-half...political mess. As one blogger mentioned "send in Jack Bauer to fix this mess." Blah.

Import? - No.

5) C3 - Just like Maken-ki, we end in a way that sets up for a second season. The final arc made things a lot more interesting with the villain, but then it just ends.

Import? - Unfortunately, no.

6) Persona 4 - Played the game, liked the game and the anime is, for the most part, following the story of the game pretty well. The introduction of Rise makes the show so much brighter.

Import? - Nope. I'll probably pick up Sentai's release in the future instead.

7) Working'!! - Solid sequel to the first season. Nothing really changed too much between season 1 and 2 and I like that. The show keeps with what works and that's what makes it so entertaining.

Import? - I'd love to, but can't budget more than three shows this season.

8) Ben-To - Interesting concept, but the show had it's flaws when it deviated from the main concept. The rest of it was good and I was hoping to see some more fighting or more focused fighting between certain enemies.

Import - Nope.

9) Guilty Crown - I really don't like Shui, but almost everything else that happens around him is actually not too terrible to watch. I'll continue to watch this one depending on how many Winter shows I watch.

Import? - No.

-----------

10 Fall shows + 1 Summer show + 2 older shows. Definitely the most shows I've watched in any given week considering I use to like watching one show at a time in it's entirety.

I'll be continuing Shana III, Persona 4 and possibly Guilty Crown through the next season. Princess Lover should be done soon, and, after that, I don't know what older show I'll watch next to hack away at the backlog (Clannad After Story is definitely screaming at me, though...so I think that takes the cake).

Surprisingly enough, I've been very good at keeping to no more than three shows per season to import. Winter 2011 looks pretty barren, so I think I'm safe unless some show turns out to be like Maken-ki where it was enjoyable enough to actually buy.

[Buckeye]

Now that my fall viewing season is complete, it's time I hand out grades. This quarter, I have been watching more simulcasts and fewer R1 releases and streams. And with four shows continuing into the winter that the completed list is quite short for this quarter. In any case, the usual drill is to give letter grades and separate the shows into sections based on how you would do it on My Anime List, except that nothing is dropped at this point. As usual, grades pertain only to the episodes I watched and if the quality of these episodes greatly contradicts my overall feelings for a show, I will have a separate grade. New to this season's evaluations are that I will be giving a probability that I will revisit a show at some point in the future for shows that I put on hold. While I place shows on hold mostly because I did not like what I saw in the first few episodes of a show, sometimes I put it there out of interest of time. Since I don't like ruling anything completely out, no show will have a 0% chance of revisiting. So with that, here is a full evaluation of the anime I watched in the fall of 2011.

Completed

[SWF-2] Spice and Wolf (season 2): A-
To start off the season, I go with Spice and Wolf, the second season. It continues to be every bit as great as the first season. The story revolves around the relationship between Kraft Lawrence and Holo seeing how they have become so attached that bad things happen to those who try to separate them until they reach Yoitz. The first half deals with how Lawrence uses his intuition to turn the sudden rise in the price of pyrite to his advantage after making a gamble with a spoiled prince. Then the second half deals with the fur trades and the amount of rioting that goes with it. The only thing that I did not like so much was the way the season ended. Let's just say that I would like to see another season coming.

Bakemonogatari: B
For this year's Halloween, I opted to go with a story about how several ordinary girls are cursed by ghost spirits of different animals. Each character has their own unique back story, and this show makes great use of visuals and text. It's pretty nice the way the stories develop and how each of the girls overcomes their curse to live a life as close to normal as possible. I am looking forward to watching Nisemonogatari that's coming out this winter.

[DTB] Darker Than Black: B+
With the release of season 2, I figured that I should watch the first season of this show. It is a bunch of two-episode stories (except for the final story that lasts three) about the contractor Hei going around and stopping other contractors from carrying out their crimes. The characters are well-developed despite the format of the show, and it does not get repetitive, which is often a problem with shows that are done in this format. I intend to watch the second season at some point, as it introduces Suo, who appears to be an interesting character from what I have been reading.

[HEA] Heroic Age: B+
The draw of this show is definitely the character designs, having been done by the same guy who did Gundam Seed. But beside that, this story was shaping up to be an epic war between the Iron Tribe and the Silver Tribe. Except that it wasn't about that at all and that is what makes it great. Instead, it is more about bridging the gaps in conflicting beliefs and philosophies and not about conquest. The characters have a ton of depth, especially the Nodos. The stories developing these characters are nicely done. All of that leads to something epic in a sense.

[DRR] Durarara! (13-26): A-
Here is a show that is better watched as a marathon rather than weekly like I was doing with its Adult Swim run. While the show itself was great with all the stories going on, I felt that there was definitely room for more. Some of the things have yet to be resolved, but overall it tells a great story and everything. The concept is great as having a gang be assembled through chat rooms and all.

[MSY] Mashiroiro Symphony: B-
This show is one of the pleasant surprises of the year. It's based on an erogame, but this is an example of how a run-of-the-mill anime adaptation of an erogame is supposed to be. While nowhere near the masterpiece that something like Kanon is, it does a solid job focusing on development of relationships and characters. Certainly, it helps that the characters are great and that the male lead is a down-to-earth guy. Now what I didn't like so much is that some of the girls get left out in the cold in advancing the storyline. I will leave it as that as to not get into spoilers. Let's just say that the main character made a decision that I'm not too thrilled about.

[HMN] Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere: B
It's sort of hard to figure out how to grade this on an overall scale since the quality episodes vary from downright stupid to epicly awesome. So my grade is sort of a weighted average of everything. The first episode was a good episode, if it was episode 3, 4, or 5, and not episode 1. No background was established right from the start, and there was just too much info dump to begin things. The first three episodes were something that would lead several people to dropping this show for good reason. However, once that was out of the way and the things get serious in episode 4, that's whens this show becomes more enjoyable to watch. But it is not until episode 10 that Sunrise really comes through. So my grade would be a D through episode 3, improving to C after 6, C+ after 9. It's one of those shows where if you dropped it early, and understandably so with the unbelievably large info dump and the silliness at the start, consider retrying since it gets much better later on. The characters were the reason why I stuck with it and this show has a lot of promise at the start. Though there are a ton of characters, there are a good number of interesting characters like Suzu, Kimi, Futayo, and Muneshige. I look forward to watching the second season that is coming this summer as this season ended with a lot of positive momentum.

[B]Ongoing

Bleach (221-228): C+
Fake Karakura town arc continues. More fights between Soul Reapers and Fracciones that concludes with the leader of the Soul Society coming in and taking down a powerful opponent. Certainly, the Arrancars have a ton of personality and not all of them are pure evil. After that it's showdown time with the Espada. But before that, it's time for a flashback. Things are moving at a snail's pace here with all these fillers and stuff, although the fights here are not drawn out. Then before a big battle ensues, there is yet more back stories and stuff unrelated to the current plot line. Not much is different from recent episodes.

[PKM-BW] Pokemon Black and White (22-44): B-
After a rough first 20 or so episodes, this show is establishing itself. Certainly, having Team Rocket cut out of most episodes helps matters (and it's not that I have anything against them, I just think having them appear in every episode was getting too old and in a good number of episodes, their appearance feels like it is forced). And then there are the episodes where we see Emolga that are great. The good is that this season is bringing in a fresh new concept and focuses more on Ash, Iris and Cilan trying to become better at what they do. Character development is highly emphasized in this season, which was lacking in some ways since the Indigo League. All this brings us to a new series that reignited my interest in this franchise. Now, we are getting to the episodes where Ash battles with Elesa, who I hope will appear more after the battle much like Fantina was in Diamond and Pearl. I will pick up right after the tournament at Nimbasa Town, although it looks like CN is going into reruns before that can happen.

[FSN-0] Fate/Zero (1-13): A-
The prequel to Fate/Stay Night is quite a treat. While Fate/Stay Night was great in its own way, F/0 has a much deeper story going on. The characters have a lot of depth, especially Rider and Lancer. While it does not have the attractive characters that FSN has, it makes up for it with deeper characters. The hour-long first episode starts things off in the right direction by establishing the backgrounds. And then the show ends on a cliffhanger that will continue in the spring.

[CHF] Chihayafuru (1-12): B
While this show is about karuta, it's really about Chihaya as it should be. Picking up a game so that one day Chihaya may reconnect with a childhood friend and lover that had moved away, Chihaya embarks on a mission to build a karuta club. It's nice that Chihaya is doing something that she can be the best at. Now while the stories and everything are nice, what isn't so nice is that there is a love triangle with one corner being pretty much a non-factor. It's about Chihaya, Taichi, and Arata being a love triangle for Chihaya, except that Arata is not around much. Let's hope that the problem gets fixed in the second half. Now, another thing not going for it is the linearity of the storyline.

[GCR] Guilty Crown (1-11): B+
With this show, the sharp and crisp animation is what makes this show so great. The storyline is developing into something really nice before the end of the first half. The first 8 episodes did a somewhat decent job in establishing the characters, but at the same time developed a rather dull character in Shu. But the most recent episodes have me on the edge of my seat now that a crisis has emerged.

[LEX-2] Last Exile: Fam of the Silver Wing (1-10): B
It starts off nicely with the fall of Turan and the partnership between the sky pirates and Milia. But then things veer way off course. The biggest strike against this show, at least in relative terms to the original season, is that Fam and Giselle are not quite as developed as they should be. Claus and Lavie are far better main characters than them. Let's see what the second half brings.

[B]Movies and OVAs

[EDE-M2] Eden of the East Movie 2: A+
The second movie wraps up this great series very nicely. It starts off picking up where the first movie left off, and then a lot happens and some digging goes on in order to connect the dots. This movie does an excellent job in making sure that nothing goes

[MHS-D] Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya: A
This is such a great movie, one where Haruhi's usual personality takes a back seat. The movie focuses more on Kyon and Yuki. While the other members of the SOS get their moments, it is the storyline that Kyon goes through that makes this movie so great. And then there is Mikuru who looks really cute with that pink coat that we don't get to see much of.

[UWM-O] Utawarerumono OVA: C
These episodes are basically side stories between the characters. The first episode is about Uratori and a baby, the second is about Eluluu helping a lady in love, and the third episode is about Touka and Aruruu on a fishing trip. The first two episodes were pretty terrible for my tastes. They just felt dumb to begin with. But the third episode was really nice as it actually has some purpose to it. Not to mention, we really get to learn a lot more about Touka in this episode, while Aruruu continues to act cute. Overall, it is not exactly something that is necessary to watch, but in some ways it is fun.

[RZM-O] Rozen Maiden Overture: C-
This OVA is basically one long history lesson about how Suigintou turned out to be what she ends up being. It's passable if you like Rozen Maiden, but is not really necessary to watch.

[HYI-O] Haiyoru Nyaruani: D-
Flash animation fails, plain and simple. But if there is any redemption to these shorts, it is the opening scene is nicely done and the characters look really great with normal animation. Good thing it is getting a normal show within the next year or so.

[TYA] Tamayura: B-
In preparation for watching the TV series, I watched the OVA shorts. Bascially these episodes, aside from the story about why Fu ended up using dad's antiqued camera, is about the friendship between the main girls. Basically, it is just an introduction of sorts and I felt like it was a whole lot of storytelling and not much spark to it. But the characters are fun to watch, and for that, I will be watching the TV series at some point.

[HAK-Q] .hack//Quantum: B-
It has been a while since I last saw something from this franchise as the last thing I remember watching was .hack//Roots that I dropped after around 10 episodes. In these episodes, we are introduced to female versions of the original .hack main trio (and a more feminine Black Rose). It had its moments, and I will leave it at that. But unlike .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, which had these cute versions of the characters, the storyline is much deeper and it was more of a story about the three girl players than it is about everybody in the game. In any case, it was good to watch something from this franchise after being out of the loop for a long time.

Rewatch

[AGB] Angel Beats: A
This is just a great show all-around. If you liked Air, Kanon, and Clannad, this is a must-see show. Unlike the previous titles written by Jun Maeda, there is a balance between the male and female characters (while the aforementioned titles are heavily female, this one is roughly even) and there is a lot more funny moments in this show. However, despite all that, it still tells great stories, and it does not detract from the focal point of the show. The relationship between Otonashi, Yurippe, and Angel made this show what it is. The English dub is another fine piece of work by Steven Foster.

[KON] K-On! (9-14): B+
This show continues to be great to watch for a second time. The girls are great and the story that brings the band together is really nice.

[UWM] Utawarerumono: B
I chose to rewatch this show since I got the DVDs from a grab bag purchase and that it is a show with a strong autumn theme. The characters are great, and there was a pretty good storyline going on. It has been four years since I first watched it, but it still is a great to watch. And that also gave me the reminder to watch the OVAs as well.

On Hold

[UNG] Un-Go (1-4): C-
Probability of Revisiting: 70%
It starts off with a murder, then something else is going on in building up towards the conclusion. Pretty much, it is decent entertainment, but certainly the repeated formula for each episode made it something that I did not have time for in a loaded fall season. I do plan on retrying this show in the future.

[MWK] Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai! (1-3): F
Provavility of Revisiting: <1%
Majikoi is probably the dumbest anime show I remember ever watching. From an all-out war of students to settle a rather minor dispute using fake weapons to a chase where the kids end up stumbling into the middle of a smuggling operation, and a ton of weirdness and fan service for no good reason makes this show have more WTF moments than I can handle. It's an eroge adaptation from what I know, but I didn't think things would be this weird from the get go, and going nowhere fast.

[Shirou Emiya]

I am finally finishing up Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, currently watching Episodes 189-203.