printerati

Finished the second cour of DURARARA!! x2 on Crunchyroll, which is a rather dull set of 12 episodes. I really hope things come to a head when it resumes in January.

Finished SHIMONETA: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Does Not Exist on Hulu, and have mixed feelings about it. It's over the top in just about every way, and while some of it (mostly the censorship) always got a laugh out of me, most of it just got really old and really juvenile.

wlj

Started watching Dragon Ball Z on Hulu. it is some highly entertaining stuff,

printerati

Marathoned Amagi Brilliant Park on Crunchyroll and had a lot of fun with it, despite a couple of really stupid episodes and an all-too-convenient ending. There is some lazy (or just plain bad) writing that uses magic as a crutch far too often.

PhantomStranger

I love that series, it's so funny and even has some heart.

I guess I have now seen Inari Kon Kon for the second time. I bought the Blu-ray set expecting to watch a series I've never seen before, only to realize I had already seen it somewhere else. The story is kind of generic since it feels like a derivative take on Kamisama Kiss, but I like the characters. Definitely worth watching at least once.

printerati

Slogging through My Mental Choices are Completely Interfering with My School Romantic Comedy on Crunchyroll, which can't decide if it wants to focus on comedy or eye candy. It has made me LOL at least once each episode, so I guess that's something.

Just started Night Raid 1931 on Crunchyroll, which I'm enjoying so far. It's refreshing how understated everything is, with the team members only using their powers when necessary.

OutRun2

What does Slogging mean?

printerati

Making my way through it slowly but surely, even though I'm kind of indifferent to it. It's only 10 episodes, so I might as well finish it.

milo bloom

I saw a bunch of gifs on Tumblr from One Punch Man so my wife and I decided to watch the first episode on Hulu. I haven't laughed at an anime like that in years, but then it gets all melancholy and I'm not sure what to feel.

Definitely want to watch more.

printerati

Finished Night Raid 1931 and thought it was great. Even the episode about the cat that could be considered "filler" did a nice job establishing more of a bond between two of the main characters. The closing credits track is also really beautiful. I need to track down the additional episodes that were part of the home video release since Crunchyroll doesn't offer them.

I haven't decided what to start next, but I haven't watched any of the fall simulcasts yet.

PhantomStranger

I've started Danganronpa. A wild series that feels heavily influenced by manga. 15 high school kids are thrown into a locked building and they must murder one of their classmates to "graduate" high school. The principal is a talking teddy bear in charge of everything. I am not sure how I feel about the show yet but the first few episodes have been watchable. I will mention that the Japanese dub is very lazy and uninspired. I actually switched over to the English dub after one episode.

Another recent series has been Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists Of The Dusk Sky. I've really enjoyed its sweet, simple take on themes taken from Japanese RPGs. It's fantasy adventure done right with enjoyable, likable characters.

Thrush

Just finished Aldnoah.Zero. It really threw me a curve with that ending. I wasn't expecting that at all.

PhantomStranger

I've seen a few episodes of A Good Librarian is Like a Good Shepherd. Seems to be developing into yet another rag-tag bunch of high school misfits banding together under the auspices of a club. Which is not a problem with me, that formula gets repeated so often because it works. There is a light mystery underlying the series, adding a bit of spice pushing the narrative forward. It's a charming series if you enjoy the characters, though the first episode is easily its most sophisticated writing. After that it descends into the genre's standard tropes pretty quickly.

PhantomStranger

I hate going on binges but I have been captivated by Overlord enough to watch nine episodes practically in a row. Very few shows hold my attention that long. It's very similar in vein to early Sword Art Online and Log Horizon, though less emo than either of those two shows. It's definitely darker in tone than its forerunners but has a touch of humor.

OutRun2

Sounds nice! I'm intrigued. Is the show complete or still on-going? How seasons are out so far?

printerati

Only one season (13 episodes) so far. I have it in my Hulu queue, but it's also on FUNimation.

PhantomStranger

I finished up Overlord's 13 episodes. Clearly written as an ongoing tale that could go on for dozens of episodes. It does end on a big battle but leaves room for far more development. It's an easy recommendation if you enjoy Log Horizon or Sword Art Online at all.

It's amazing what a great voice actor can do with a small role. Lady Albedo is a supporting character in Overlord but the voice actress imbues her with so much life that it elevates the character into a very critical element. It's the type of performance you wouldn't hear in an American dub, sadly. In a very dark story her character gets most of the humorous moments.

OutRun2

I just finished watching Monster and while not flawless, it was quite the psychological rollercoaster ride!

With all its ups and downs, at the end of the day I really liked it. It's really worth watching for everyone who desires something other than the run-of-mill anime, something unique. If you can overlook the droll exposition and sometimes aimlessly branching and dragged out storytelling, you'll find a really suspenseful and interesting story of crime and punishment, dark secrets, interesting characters, huge plot twists, thrilling psychological expeditions into the human mind and soul and much more.

PhantomStranger

Which still hasn't seen a full DVD release in the States. I don't think I've ever seen beyond episode 23 or so of Monster, but what I did see was captivating at times. It's the Hannibal (NBC's show) of anime.

PhantomStranger

Concrete Revolutio is an interesting, mature Japanese take on superheroes. A team of superhumans are put together to manage other superhumans and occasionally battle monsters. It's told with a very complex narrative style that jumps back and forth in time within each episode.

I see a lot of Western influences in Concrete Revolutio. The creator seems very familiar with all the standard American comic book tropes and includes nods to various Hollywood superhero movies.

Koby

I thought Monster was a bore-fest personally. It took 74 episodes to tell a 6 episode story that went full-circle to end exactly where it began.

PhantomStranger

The pacing in Monster did seem very sluggish. I think that was the reason why I drifted away from it and never finished the entire series.

OutRun2

You have a good point and it is true, but things always wrap up when you least expect them to

PhantomStranger

I've been catching up with the second season of Aria the Scarlet Ammo. I enjoyed the first season a few years ago and was surprised to see it come back with a second season. They've changed the entire show around from being about Aria to her mini-protege, a young Butei ranked at the bottom of her class.

Sad to say but I am not enjoying this new season very much. Aria has been reduced to a supporting character so they can focus on slice-of-life girl stuff with this new character and her friends. The other original characters from season one are mostly absent. Aria is still herself but she gets very little screen time.

This feels like a duplication of the same thing they did with Soul Eater Not and stripped out much of the original show's tone.

Thrush

Just finished Legend of Arslan. It was pretty good. I liked how the main character grew over the course of the series. Just starting the 2nd season of Noragami Aragoto and so far its been better than the 1st which I really enjoyed.

PhantomStranger

Speaking of Noragami, a show I like, check out this bit of news.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-new...call-to-prayer