12 Jun 2013

Anime Weekly 12/06/13


Let's get the bad things out of the way first. Suisei no Gargantia is still weak. Last week wasn't very impressive, but I was hoping for some kind of big double twist to really drive it home this week. Didn't happen. Henneko was an absolute mess. I gave it some praise last week but the revelation this week was just utterly terrible! It's one thing to try and make an interesting and complex solution, but they just turned it into a mess. (P.S. Would have liked to hear Ishihara Kaori's attempt at doing a voice somewhere in between Azusa's and the Stony Cat's) Hataraku Maou-sama has lost a lot of its bite in the last few episodes. After Lucifer joined the gang, things just don't feel the same any more. BTW in the above image Suzuno is dressed in a traditional diving suit for catching seafood. Even many of the young people in Japan don't know about this, I wonder how many foreigners would. I just happened to watch a documentary on them recently ^.^. Lastly, Shingeki no Kyojin focused on Armin this week and it felt rather cheesy and dragged out. It tries to be a Death Note but isn't as sharp.




Yahari this week is a lot more focused. The bad thing is that we don't get as much Saika. The good thing is that we get Yukino separated from the group and proving to be the hardest person to understand right now. There is just the right amount of insight into her character that would give viewers some vague clues about what might be making her act this way. The conclusion to this arc is quite hard to predict and I'm eager to find out!


Oreimo continues to blaze through the light novels. This particular volume of the light novel consists of short stories from the view point of various characters. The anime producers decided to just animate this one particular short story. I guess this works best, since we are heading into the Ayase arc next week... Also, we got to see Bridget again! But no ClariS :(


This week's Aku no Hana was a masterpiece. Once again they showed that their stylistic choice for this show was the right one. I can't see these kind of emotions being animated any other way! Story-wise, we see all 3 main characters totally break down. Yes, even Nakamura. If Ise Mariya (voice of Nakamura) doesn't win a seiyuu award for her performance in this episode... something is wrong with the world. Kasuga could have benefited from a proper seiyuu, but I can also see why the producers wanted to do this. Having actually acted out all the motions in the live-action capture, the voice performance can be quite different.

p.s. I've started watching Aiura in the mornings before work. Has a Yuru Yuri vibe but less frantic. I'm going to check out Yuyushiki next, maybe in a week or 2.

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