OutRun2

I've read that SAO is trash anyway. Starts off promising and then later on falls flat and becomes garbage.

TheBigDave

The first half of Sword Art Online was incredible. The second half was still really good. It just didn't reach the awesomeness of the first story arc. But it was definitely not garbage. SAO was probably the best show of 2012.

PhantomStranger

+1

printerati

I would put SAO second behind The Pet Girl of Sakurasou for 2012, but both are great.

frozdragon

Ghost Hunt (rewatch)
Future Diary
Heaven's lost property forte
Is this a zombie? of the dead
strike witches season 2

chrisc31

I am still watching old anime series in my collection, I just finished (forget the name) "I My Me Strawberry Eggs" now I am watching "Hand Maid May"

chrisc31

I started watching Ultra Maniac, I forgot how much I liked it.

printerati

Currently caught up on the Crunchyroll simulcast of Arpeggio of Blue Steel, which is about as enjoyable as submarine warfare can be.

In a nutshell, Earth's surface has been largely submerged due to global warming and other factors, and an alien armada of warships and submarines known as The Fog appeared and took control of the seas around the same time. Each vessel of the alien fleet is controlled by an individual AI (and each have a "mental model" physically represented as a hot girl, of course), but one of the submarines went rogue and demanded a human commander, who also went rogue along with his motley crew and now uses the sub to fight against The Fog.

The sea battles actually are fun to watch, but the show has already taken a strange detour in episode 5 with a couple of the mental models being separated from their destroyed ships and interacting with humans. Also strange is the decision to focus on the character development of the AIs at the expense of the human characters. I don't have especially high hopes for this one.

PhantomStranger

Uh Oh, I get nervous when a series starts making dramatic shifts around the 4 to 6 episode mark. They usually don't turn out very well and indicate the series wasn't planned out that well.

printerati

Agreed, and it's only a 12 episode series (according to Wikipedia), which is also not in its favor. Sunday Without God was also 12 episodes, and we saw how that turned out.

TheBigDave

Sweet Blue Flowers (Aoi Hana) - A really good show. I've been wanting to watch it for a while, and finally got around to it. Slow-paced romance, slice-of-life stuff. A little bittersweet, but it's gentle and not heartbreaking.

Hanasaku Iroha: Home Sweet Home - This is the full-length movie (although it's only 65 minutes). I enjoyed it. The artwork was absolutely gorgeous. It's basically just for fans of the show, like a long episode.

Canis Firebrand

Started watching Code: Breaker last night. Hulu has 13 episodes (subbed) showing as available to watch. I watched the first two and enjoyed it. Having a hard time placing it in comparison to other shows I've watched. I found it while browsing on Hulu.com and it was listed in the Anime genre, supernatural sub-genre.

PhantomStranger

I finally finished up Photo Kano, based on a guy interested in photography while dating most of the beautiful women at his high school. It was based off a dating sim, so the second half of the series has each episode featuring a different girl and what-if scenario that develops into a romantic relationship. Surprisingly effective romance for a series that starts out with some fan service.

printerati

Funny...after watching the past few episodes, I'm actually glad Arpeggio of Blue Steel went in this direction (AI character development/human interaction). The AIs trying to come to terms with their "anomalous" behavior as a result of being around humans has become the most interesting aspect of the series. There is also a brief but humorous explanation for why all of the AIs took female forms.

I'm still enjoying Log Horizon, too, although exposition is still being kept to a minimum (the "revelation" hinted at in the episode 5 preview still hasn't occurred as of episode 8). They have 25 episodes to work with, so I guess there is still plenty of time for that. I wasn't crazy about them blatantly ripping off yet another element of SAO (cooking skills), but they at least went in a different (and, frankly, more useful) direction with it.

shadokitty

Finished the first season of Vandread a couple weeks ago. Haven't started Second Stage yet as I decided to give myself a bit of a break. Between series right now as I have yet to decide what to watch next.

fujishig

Are you watching Vandread on DVD? I have never watched the series, but am always turned off by the non-anamorphic print, and I'm wondering if they ever changed that.

Any thoughts on Guilty Crown or Penguin Drum? I think I'm going to pick one of those two to purchase next...

PhantomStranger

Penguin Drum is great, a series that has fun and drama while tugging at the heartstrings. I've heard Guilty Crown is a mess but I haven't seen it.

Ash Ketchum

Vandread was made for TV 13 years ago, why would it be anamorphic?

fujishig

It's widescreen non-anamorphic. Why wouldn't it be?

OutRun2

G Gundam

Boy they weren't lying when they said it's DBZ with robots! Loving it so far though. Up to ep 24.

McHawkson

Finished watching:

B Gata H Kei - Yamada's First Time - This series is hilarious and it kind of bummer that they ended it early. However, there's plenty to read in manga.

Aria: The Scarlet Ammo - Too bad the series cut short...

shadokitty

I got the complete series on DVD including the OVAs and I don't think they ever changed it.

chrisc31

I just got in the mail and will watch this weekend. So, I Can't Play H, Maken-Ki!, and Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero

PhantomStranger

I just watched the recently released Kokoro Connect OVA. It's largely four more extended episodes of the series, which is a good thing. There is a resolution of a kind to the Heartseed, though one character undergoes a somewhat drastic personality change that I didn't really like too much.

I finally finished the second season of Student Council's Discretion. I had put off the last few episodes for a while since it only ran 10 episodes and had enjoyed it so much. Easily one of the funniest and most self-aware anime I've ever seen. I so wish Funimation or someone would give the series an English Dub.

TheBigDave

This season was interesting. There were some great shows, and also some major disappointments.

Kyousougiga was absolutely amazing. It came out of nowhere and ended up being my favorite show of the entire year. I also really liked Beyond The Boundary, Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta, and Non Non Biyori.

Yuushibu, Gingitsune and Outbreak Company were all enjoyable. Fairly average and predictable shows, but still fun to watch.

Two shows I was really looking forward to watching, turned out to be major disappointments. I guess I was expecting Golden Time to be more like Toradora. Unfortunately, it's got too much melodrama and not enough comedy. There's still another 12 episodes to go, so hopefully they can turn it around. The other show was Galilei Donna. I loved the first episode, but it was downhill from there.