I am really enjoying the winter season so far! There are so many great anime, and a variety of them! Mystery with Boogiepop, comedy with Kaguya-sama, awesome action with Dororo, interesting world-building in Shield Hero….this season’s definitely bursting with great anime! People were saying that Fall 2018 was a really good season, but the way I see it, this season is better in almost every aspect.
Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019)
Boogiepop continues to be extremely cryptic, mysterious and completely out of order, yet still manages to keep my attention with every episode. I can sorta piece together what’s going on just by going through the episodes, but there are still a few things I am confused about (well, obviously). I am mostly enjoying its non-linear story-telling though. It is definitely a very unique way of portraying the story, and although you don’t quite get the same climaxes as you do in linear stories, the non-linear story telling offers a bit of a different climax, being the point in time when we as the viewers piece together each piece we’ve received into a whole picture. Still, the characters seem to be very bland, although the characters aren’t really the driving force of the show anyway, but rather the mystery.
Eheheheh….yes, I am late to things yet again, as it has been a month since Yomu kicked off his Aniblogger collaboration in which the participating members will watch This Art Club Has A Problem! and analyze it for specific themes from the theme list Yomu has provided! Visit this post for more information!
Anyways, for this first episode, I have chosen the core theme: The Hidden Dark Side of the Art Club. As I haven’t watched the episode yet, I don’t know if I’ll actually have anything to write about, but let’s just hope I can at least make something up.
First and foremost: I am still alive. I realize I haven’t posted in over two weeks, and that is both because this post was really long to write and also because I had a whole ton of homework for the past two weeks. But anyways, I am back and I will probably write an extra post this week to make up for the last two weeks!
I recently finished the Oregairu anime, and I really hated it…at first. But throughout the anime, the main character, Hachiman, began to grow on me and I ended up heavily enjoying it by the time I watched the second season. So now I’m thinking, “Why not watch it again?” But this time, I’m going to take a look at every episode and try to take a look at how the show develops its characters, how it develops its themes, and how these things relate to myself! So here’s the first post in a series of…well, we’ll see how long I can stick with this post series.
Obviously, there will be spoilers, so watch the episode before you read this!
This was the first gif I ever made for this blog…
I also won’t be summarizing the episode or anything, so some of you readers might’ve already forgotten the episode or something….I guess I’ll rip a summary off the Oregairu Wiki.
Episode 1: And Thus, Their Mistaken Youth Begins Hachiman Hikigaya is forced to join the Service Club and meets the only other member, Yukino Yukinoshita. Even though they argue and have different ideals, Hachiman believes they are somewhat similar. Together they handle the clubs first request from Yui Yuigahama, who wishes to make cookies for someone. While Yukino’s method fails, Hachiman manages to fulfill her request. Afterwards Yui gives Hachiman and Yukino cookies as thanks. Yui then insists she can help with the club and befriends the current Service Club members.
Spoilers for the first episodes of the following anime will be present!
Alright. This part 2/2 is pretty late, since most of these episodes have already aired over a week ago, but I just didn’t have the time to get around to finishing this up! There’s so much to do, from watching anime to reading light novels and manga, plus the added weight of school and homework… Anyways, here are the rest of my first impressions. I’m not including Revisions in this, since it was a Netflix anime and released all 12 episodes right off the bat. I’ll probably just do a normal review for it once I finish it.
The Rise of the Shield Hero
The extra long first episode, while starting out somewhat dull, quickly escalated into quite an interesting story, with the surprising twist of our protagonist being framed as a vile criminal. I also heavily appreciate this story for something that I have really been looking forward to for quite a while: a main character who isn’t the main attacker. Naofumi, being the shield hero, can literally only use his shield and is therefore weaker in terms of damage-dealing capabilities than anyone else. However, Naofumi’s strength lies in his ability to defend and keep the attack force safe, and making sure that the attackers are able to focus solely on defeating the enemy while he takes care of the defense. Main characters cast in what are usually supporting roles tend to be fresh and interesting ideas. The art and sound seem to be pretty generic, but not bad. I’ve read ahead in the manga after I watched the pre-air, and the story that follows is definitely some interesting stuff. I look forward to watching more of this!
Promised Neverland
I like the artistic choices the directors made.
As one who had read the manga before the adaption came out, I think that the first episode has adapted the story pretty well so far. Of course, a single episode isn’t very much material to judge the anime on, but I really enjoy the vibrancy of the anime. I love how the palette gives the whole thing a ‘fairy tale’ fantasy-like theme, and it fits really well since it is a story where the protagonists are eleven year old children. As well, the facial expressions, while slightly over-the-top, manage to quite effectively communicate the pure horror that these eleven-year old children are feeling. I also thought that the scene leading up to the reveal of Conny’s dead body was really well done, managing to effectively build tension for that dark, climactic revelation of Conny’s death. One last thing—I absolutely love the OP sequence. It’s definitely my favourite OP of the season so far, with the energetic, hype-filled ‘Touch Off’ by uverworld, accompanied with the flickering, action-packed OP animation just blows me away. So far, I am mighty impressed with the directing in this first episode and I hope to see more!
Kaguya-sama: Love is War
While I was slightly hesitant about this one first, the first episode was quite hilarious, fully living up to the premise it introduced in the synopsis. If you enjoy comedy, I believe this will be the the anime for you this season! I absolutely loved the way the main protagonists obsess over every action they take in their endeavors to force the other to confess, and this episode seemed like it was only a small taste of whats to come! The art is quite okay as well, and I really like Kaguya’s character design (especially the eyes).
And that’s it for my first impressions this season! All of these anime look quite promising, and I’m thinking that this season is looking to be even better than Fall of 2018! Thanks again for reading, and have a good night (it’s nighttime right now).
The winter season is looking pretty interesting, and I’ve decided to try and watch quite a lot of the anime this time! Ugh. I might end up dropping something if I can’t keep up with both anime and my school work though :(. Anyways, let me go through some first impressions!
Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019)
Since this was a two episode release, I’ll talk about both episodes!
So I watched another anime recently, called Another, mainly because I was interested in the eye patch girl.
No, not this one.
I don’t know why, but I just like the character design of eye-patch girls. But well, I think my interest has ended with this anime, because once again I felt a bit disappointed with the actual character’s personality. But I’ll talk about that later!
Here’s a summary I ripped off of MyAnimeList:
In 1972, a popular student in Yomiyama North Middle School’s class 3-3 named Misaki passed away during the school year. Since then, the town of Yomiyama has been shrouded by a fearful atmosphere, from the dark secrets hidden deep within. Twenty-six years later, 15-year-old Kouichi Sakakibara transfers into class 3-3 of Yomiyama North and soon after discovers that a strange, gloomy mood seems to hang over all the students. He also finds himself drawn to the mysterious, eyepatch-wearing student Mei Misaki; however, the rest of the class and the teachers seem to treat her like she doesn’t exist. Paying no heed to warnings from everyone including Mei herself, Kouichi begins to get closer not only to her, but also to the truth behind the gruesome phenomenon plaguing class 3-3 of Yomiyama North. Another follows Kouichi, Mei, and their classmates as they are pulled into the enigma surrounding a series of inevitable, tragic events—but unraveling the horror of Yomiyama may just cost them the ultimate price.
So Another was one of the few horror anime that I have watched. Actually, it might’ve been the only non-psychological horror anime that I have completely watched (King’s Game was too stupid for me to take seriously). Actually, I don’t really watch horror at all, so it might be one of the only things horror-related that I’ve ever been exposed to in my life. And so, I’m probably not a great judge of whether or not this is a good horror show, but it…wasn’t scary.
Note: Today’s review is not as structured as my others (trying something new)
Genres: Comedy, Idol, Slice of Life, Zombies
So I was just a tad bit skeptical about the anime at first, as I had never watched an Idol anime before. I never really cared about watching cute girls sing and dance or whatever happens in Idol anime and I still don’t. Unless the entire freaking building collapses or they start shooting lasers out of their fingers.
Zombieland Saga is an inspiring story about how Sakura Minamoto, a bubbly young girl, achieves her dream of becoming an idol through hard work and perseverance. It starts on the first day of school, when she decides to audition to be an idol after spending hours of work and effort in preparation. Excited, Sakura happily skips out her front door and is hit by a truck.
