Aznchau4ever's Animextravaganza

[Chaukai]

Hello, hello, this is Aznchau4ever, and I understand that we have a general discussion thread for Anime/Manga, so this is a little something to supplement it so that I don't fill up that thread with random things.

You see, I am a huge watcher of Anime, and if you haven't figured that out yet, well, now you know.

Planned Segments:
Season Parade! - First Look and Review of Seasons of Anime
Stamped~ - Review of an anime, with a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
Rhythm'd - Favorite OP or EDs
Talk and Smack Corner ~Anime Edition~ - Review of an Anime Film
You ship, I ship - Random Fandomming

This thread will be for multiple segments of my own device, although I'm not exactly sure which exactly, but this will mostly be for reviews, and such and such, so, as to not make this thread empty, may I present to you, the very first segment oh so caaallled:

Season Parade!

Every season, new anime comes straight from Japan. Most of the time, they will come once a week, usually around Fridays and Saturdays. Season Parade! will be a sort of a review and first look segment where I will talk about the various animes from the season. Now, this will be based on what I watched that season, so not all of them will be listed.

So looking at Anime, you might have a question for me, and that question is, "Why should we care, Chau, about all this new anime? It's not even finished!" Well, true as that may be, watching Anime as it comes out comes with many benefits. Those being:

• Watching it as it comes out makes it so you don't have to be forced into an archive binge, where you have to motivate yourself to watch 20-odd episodes. It's one episode a week, that sounds doable right?
• Seeing new anime allows you to vary in choices. If you start early in the season and you aren't interested in one, you can always try picking up another.
• If you find an anime that you really like, it's always good to suggest to your other anime friends. Chances are, they haven't seen it since it's so new! You'll be the talk of all the parties, people will come from all over school to worship you!

Now, it's understandable that there are also flaws in watching new anime as it comes out, but I'm not going to get into that.

This segment is not supposed to be an exact overview as to whether or not you should watch the show, but instead be a sort of supplement as to spark your interest. Remember that my personal tastes could be far different from yours. My goal in writing this is to give you a brief overview as to how the show starts, and so in no way is supposed to be any sort of review. Hell, I may say a show started out awful, but ends up being my favorite show.

So to start off, we're going to have a...

First Look: Fall 2011

So far, the Fall Season's Anime has been very interesting, with a lot of different kinds of shows. The ones that I won't mention are any that are second seasons or spin-offs of shows that I have not watched. For obvious reasons. So if you are wondering why the list isn't every single show that's out this season, that's why. That will be for another segment or something. So we'll just go down the list of anything new! (Note that all shows are around 2-3 episodes in)

Chihayafuru

This show is about... So far as I've watched, a girl and her passion for Kurata, an old traditional game where music is played and the players have to grab the card that matches the poem. I've watched 3 episodes in, and this was surprisingly a lot better than I first thought it to be. While it has only been flashbacks for the past three episodes, the sweet and cute childhood of Chihaya and the others was very engaging and nice. My eyes got a little watery on the third episode, it's surprising that a show that's just about chucking cards around the place. It's a slice of life with some light humor, if you're looking for something a little bit more reserved, with a different and more traditional art style, this is a very nice one.

Guilty Crown

Guilty Crown is about a guy who finds this girl who he can like.... Draw the essence from or something and use that essence to create weapons that do all these flashy effects and stuff. From what I've seen, it's a sort of rebellion anime, kinda like a dumbed down Code Geass, honestly. I haven't seen anything fantastic except the action, which is pretty highly saturated. This show is a mecha actiony sort of deal so expect a lot of robots and explosions.

Un-Go

Un-Go is about a man called the Defeated Detective and his knowledge thirsty weird transforming sidekick in a future dystopic world or something. Basically, from what I'm seeing, the show will be about him and the weird sidekick girl solving different cases that are very strange and out there. From the two episodes I've seen, both plots being unrelated, I've found it to be very interesting. Un-Go takes the criminal and doesn't paint them as these deranged or spiteful people, but in a different light to something, not necessarily more realistic, but more relateable. It's a very interesting show, the first episode was very engaging, if you're looking for a mystery, this has a ton of it.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon (Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere)

I'm honestly not sure what this is about yet. There was a whole slew of characters introduced, and some sort of plot which I think exists but I just haven't seen yet. I enjoy the artstyle, but so far, atleast for me, it's been a bit difficult to follow. With so many characters and only broad hints as to what the main goal of the... Main character, (at least I think he's the main character,) is, it's still on the fence.

Persona 4: The Animation

Persona 4 is based off a JRPG that was for the Playstation 2. I have not personally played it, but I have only heard fantastic things about Persona 4. The anime, (and the video game) is about a trio who find themselves inside a... TV? I think...? And they find monsters and duke them out with Personas, these giant other monsters that fight for the trio, or something like that. It's a very strange world, within the TV, I haven't found this to be extremely engaging but it has sparked an interest. We'll see how well this goes.

Fate/Zero

Fate/Zero is the prequel to the Anime Fate/Stay Night. Now, being honest, in my opinion, F/SN was overrated, flashy, and overdramatic. It had all the cliches of an action anime brewed into one, twenty-four-episode series. The premises of Fate/Stay Night was fantastic. Seven Masters were chosen and they could summon Servants from history that were heroes or villains, and they fight it out to get the Holy Grail, which was said to grant a wish. Great premises, bad delivery via Anime. It did injustice to its Visual Novel. Fate/Zero has a very similar storyline, and let me tell you they are definitely setting it up on the right foot this time. While still slightly cliche and overdramatic, the story telling and characters aren't nearly as flat and predictable as Fate/Stay Night. If you watched Fate/Stay Night, loved or hated, you should definitely keep up with this one, it could be a keeper.

Maken-Ki!

I'm going to keep you out of trouble and just say that unless you're a fan of every female having a fair D-cup boobs, don't watch this. Maken-Ki is about a guy who's going to an all-female school that recently opened up for males as well. The one thing is that everybody in the school has something called a... A... Oh eff I don't remember. Some sort of weird thing that gave them powers and so they have epic battles with each other. Problem is, Main Character is a complete sexist ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ so he just keeps commenting about why girls shouldn't fight. But ignoring that, it's a whole myriad of censored panty shots and boobs. And then some fighting. Did I mention the Main Character is a complete pervert as well? Yeah, that's about it.

Kimi to Boku

I found this to be refreshingly new and different from the usual Slice of Life genre anime. The fact that the anime is centralized around four males, (albeit, a female arrives later on,) is very interesting. This anime tells about the school life and the four guys' childhood with each other. It's a very nice anime, and I quite enjoy the characters. They have a sort of interesting personality that really drew me in, and so I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one. If you're looking for a sort of relaxed anime, this one is definitely the one you need.

Mashiro-iro Symphony

I honestly wanted the OP and ED to be the songs that were played in the Visual Novel. They aren't. Sad day. Anyways, Mashiro-iro is about, hey, this sound familiar? A guy goes to an all female school that recently opened up for males. But this one, unlike Maken-Ki has a bit more of a sweet side to it. From what I'm seeing, it's a bit of a harem, but this one focuses more on how the Main Character adapts and gets to know the females, and less about boobs, panties, and all that stuff. From what I've seen, it's a bit slow, but there has been some progression with the Main Character and the main love interest, although I've also been seeing a sort of incestual relation with the Main Character and the sister, very light, but definitely there. From what I've seen, this is definitely going to focus on romance. The artstyle is very basic modern Anime, which I prefer, and so far has been okay with its character development. If you're looking for a simple romance, I'm seeing one here.

Tamayura ~Hitotose~

Honestly, for some reason I can not for the life of me get into this anime. Tamayura is about a girl who... Uhh... I think her father is dead or something, but she moves back to her hometown which she grew up in and meets all her old friends and makes new friends. The main character loves taking pictures, (She's awful at it,) but it basically follows her and her friends life. Very direct Slice of Life, very calm atmosphere, with little momentous events that happen.We'll see about this one, I personally don't have anything to say, but... Yeah. IF you're interested, watch it.

Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle

There are two types of geniuses within the genre of Anime like this. The ♥♥♥♥ Brilliant Genius: The one who literally thinks things that you didn't think before but makes your brain explode at how brilliant s/he is because they manipulated the situation to their advantage. Or The LOOK AT ME I'M A GENIUS: The one who may be smart, but honestly, you don't care because the show gives the Genius all the advantages or they find it out using things that you didn't know about or see. An example of the first one would be people like Light Yagami, a man who used the rules of the Death Note, clearly stated, and manipulated it to his advantage. An example of the second one? Kaito, the main character of this anime. Phi Brain is about Kaito who is a genius puzzle solver who basically just pulls ♥♥♥♥ out of his ♥♥♥. I don't know, sorry anime, so far, I haven't been convinced that this guy is brilliant. He's just observant of things we can't possible see. That's all.

Boku wa Tomadochi wa Sukunai (I Don't Have Many Friends)

Haha! Let me define you this anime: Moe artstyle with awesome and interesting characters. This show is about a girl and a guy who basically are social outcasts, but they don't want to be, so Yozara, the girl, decides to make the Neighbor's Club, a club dedicated to one thing and one thing only: Making friends. Quickly after, a girl named Sena joins, a girl who Yozara despises with the passion. SO obviously Hilarity Ensues. The two girls are more similar than they think, although they'd probably never admit it, I believe this show to be extremely funny and witty, and I quite enjoy it. While there is no real plot, and I'm seeing a harem about to be formed, I find the comedy in it to be light and original, and the characters to be different, but in a good way.

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! (Do Love Me Seriously!)

This show has its fair amount of unnecessary fanservice but so far, it's been okay. This show is about... A... School that has class wars with each otehr, but... Not... Really? I'm not honestly sure, because they've barely mentioned it since the first episode, but anyways, there's some sort of giant harem going on with the main character, and then a bajillion other characters that were introduced in the first episode then haven't been seen since. I'm not exactly sure what exactly this is supposed to be but there's some pretty cool action scenes in it. I don't know, we'll see.

Mirai Nikki (Future Diary)

And now we get to the good ones. Mirai Nikki definitely is the show that can have all the potential but can also fall flat. From what I've seen, I'm strongly reminded of Deadman Wonderland. Maybe it's just the whiny ♥♥♥♥♥ main character. Yeah that might be it. But you see, the girl that's with the MC, is probably the epitome of Yandere characters. And yes is she interesting. Mirai Nikki is about a kid who wrote everything down within his diary, until one day, "God" gives him every single entry he would write in the future, thus his diary becomes something that reads the future. The thing is, he also does this to 11 other people, and turns it into a game. Whoever is the last one standing will become "God." They must use their future diaries to kill each other, and yada yada. It has a fantastic premises, and from what I've seen, it's been okay, although I wouldn't say that I can judge if it'll be completely awesome or not. There's still room for failure. This is definitely an interesting concept, and if you're wanting something that's new and interesting, definitely try this one out.

C³: Cubed x Cursed x Curious

Oh, this one is a personal favorite. C³ is about a guy who's uncle ships him a cube. Except the thing is, it's not a cube. It's a girl. A girl that transforms into a cube. Yeah, strange right? But oh it gets even stranger. Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that the first episode is definitely not a good representative of the next two. I'm not sure whether to define this under the Slice of Life, Comedy genre or the Psychological, Action, Horror genre. Or maybe all of them. Is that possible?

Ben-To

Probably the champion of ambiguous futures of anime. Ben-To is, in a nutshell, about the main character and how he fights against people in order to get half-priced lunch boxes. This is so interesting and made into something epic and awesome, that this is definitely my top pick for suggestions for anime of this season to watch. Try it out yourself, it's very interesting and epic.

Overview
So for the Fall 2011 Anime, I've seen some very promising shows as well as ones that... Well.. I just had complete distaste for. I'll be keeping up with all of them until they end. Once the Fall 2011 Anime ends and the Winter 2011 begins I'll be doing a Season Parade wrap-up of the Fall 2011 material. So, until then, that's been the Season Parade!

[Avo]

Wow.

The one that really caught my eye was Persona 4: The Animation. I've been looking all over for the game for a long time now, but I still can't find. I haven't really heard of an anime based off of a video game. So I'm quite interested in this.

[MessengerOfDreams]

Wow. What an intricate, well written post. You'd seriously be a good professional reviewer, taking everything into account. Don't discount it.

I doubt I'll watch any of these, but I will keep an eye on Future Diary. The concept would be a very interesting book, and if it becomes good, I'll consider it.

[brandoprojectm]

I believe a topic title change to "My Butthole's Animextravaganza" is in order.

[Chaukai]

So I'm thinking of making this some sort of thing where each segment is on a certain day of the week or something. I dunno, we'll see.

Rhythm'd!
Hello! Now, this will be a segment that's a quick, short one for me to share the OPs and EDs that I just enjoy a lot. If it's not anything new, you'll find most of the songs on http://gendou.com/amusic/? as well as the Romaji, Katakana, and English lyrics. So with that, let's get started!

Hayate no Gotoku ED3 - Chasse
For today, I'd like to share a very light and nice on.



I love the melody and the just plain happiness of this song. It's very calm and sweet. At first with this ED, I was just like, "Meh" but it definitely grew on me, and after the third time hearing this, I was hooked. It gets a bit weaker as it goes on, but the beginning of it is just fantastic. I'll be trying a ton of different kinds of genres as to keep a bit of variation, so, until then!

Lunlunlun~

[Ridder]

THE RIDDER
The most official un-official add-on to any animextravaganza you will find anywhere.
Awright bro, so this is the part where I explain the stuff. I will be adding on my own additional segment to Ciao's, who I love so much as to do anything for him , and anyone who would want to kill him can might as well die, Animextravaganza. It's going to be a very well written and exceptionally professional newspaper-esque thing. Totally not condensed or anything. It is recommended you read Chau's segments first though.


Now, see here, fella...

-ENGAGED SEGEMENTS-

Woah, Bro. - I'll tell you whether or not my face exploded with sheer excitement or not. Also, plotholes.
Dat Musak - Description of OP or EDs
And Other Such shat that I'd rather not talk about right now.


Awrite, let's get going.


WOAH, BRO.

Mirai Nikki (Future Diary)


Alright then, okay, I've only two episodes into this, but I'll describe this as best I can.
Okay, so there's a board guy, who's average, board of his life, yada yada yada. Then fantastical and frightening ♥♥♥♥ happens when God interferes with his life.

So now they has diaries which can tell their fate within 90 days, okay, and they're all murdering each other and crap with their diaries foretelling their deaths with a final "I am cornered and slain" or something like that. Thing is, how the hell can you, in the future, write in your diary about how you were murdered? For newcomers of sick twisted ♥♥♥♥ in anime, this might be something that like, dunks your whole face in the water for a good two minutes, so if you're trying for something with a lighter taste, come back later and choose something else.


Persona 4: The Animation

Omfg. Yes.
Okay, so recently, I had become acquainted with the game, say, two or three months ago. It's fantastic. And as far as I can tell, this one follows the story a bit similarly.

Now, granted, Persona 4 starts out very slowly, taking at least three hours to get to the first dungeon, while this one gets to the first real boss within.........four episodes.
Safe to say, they skip a few things. Well, first off, the Personas do all the fighting, and that comes off as a tad bit bland as the main characters take the sidelines while their Personas do all the work. This isn't really the case for the game, but if that's how they plan on doing things, then that's how they plan on doing things. Also, it adds a leaves out bits of backstory and adds it's own, which is alright considering the game is like, 60 hours long at least.
It's cool if your looking for a "bonds make you stronger" sort of anime. Also, the fantastic artwork and soundtrack is pretty amazing too.

















Well, that's all I wrote.

[Chaukai]

Hello, time for a segment I'd like to call!~

Stamped~
Now this segment will be a review of a recently watched anime. Now why is it called Stamped, you may ask? Well, after the review, instead of a rating system, I'll have a stamp saying whether or not I like it or not. Very simple, very easy. This segment is not made for you to judge the book by its cover, but to consider if this show would be right for you or not, and if you agree with my opinions or not.

Anyways, for the first one, I'm going to do something that hasn't had a lot of limelight, and it's called...

Shiki


What is Shiki, you may ask? Well, I'll summarize it up. In a small secluded village of Sotoba, new residence move into a giant mothereffing castle. Then suddenly, mysterious deaths start occuring, with rumors of the Shiki, or you would know them as Vampires, are the cause. Now that was of course, a very brief overview of a fairly complicated plot. I won't say this was the most insane anime in terms of plot, but it had some very strong points that got me thinking a bit at times.

Now then, we'll go over each section...

Plot: Shiki's plot surprised me fully. In the very beginning, it seemed to me to be a very generic horror show, with the general bad guy and the general protagonist. The biggest problem I had was the slow pickup that the show had. The first 8ish episodes had a slightly uneventful movement, with introductions and hints of there being a greater threat. With this anime, the slowness, while it may have been necessary, was not the greatest attention grabber. It was when the plot started picking up in the second half of the show that this really grabbed me. The movement of the story and the greater overlying message that was meant to be told to the viewers was done in a fantastic way. You find yourself in conflict of agreeing with one side and the other. There is a very difficult line that differentiates the good and the evil, whichever one you may choose it to be.

Characters: A drastic problem with Shiki was the slew of characters. In the beginning you're pretty much overwhelmed with characters, most of who you're not sure will be important or not. Much like the slowness of the beginning, this works for the plot and the structure of the anime, but still doesn't mean that it attracts the audience. So focusing more on the "main" characters, I found this anime to also give a postmodern ideal with stories, in that there really is no true main character of this show. They viewed the events as simply a series of events, with every character having pitiable aspects. I found some characters to be a bit too over the top with how one-sided they were, especially when some of them didn't gain much character development to justify any of their actions. But some characters, like Sukano, really grew into something more in-depth than expected. Shiki was a show that definitely aimed to attack the social standards of humanity, while still giving reason to the actions.

Animation: I found the animations of Shiki to be a bit too dull for me. The gore and violence were definitely at a high, although this was in order to prove a point. There was very few characters who didn't have strange hairdos that not just defied gravity, but made gravity its ♥♥♥♥♥. The differentiations between Shikis and humans, I found to be very well put and well used, although it does bring to mind the stupidity of the villagers, such as how the hell they don't notice the shikis have no pupil. But this is more Blue and Orange mentality of Anime, in that you can't really define their physical norms.

Overall: Shiki had an extremely gripping storyline with characters that surprisingly exploded with personality. There were some drop-offs of characters that was a bit disappointing, as they were quite interesting (such as the puppet girl). But overall, I would definitely suggest this to anyone who enjoys a good horror. This doesn't have any extremely nightmare fuel-ish content, (atleast not for me,) but it does have a very good criticism of the human society. With a slow start but a powerful plot, this is definitely an anime that needs a little bit of motivation at the start. The ending might be dissatisfying to some, but I found it perfect for myself.


I'll probably make some sort of approval stamp myself, but for now:


This anime has been Stamped~ with an approval!

[Chaukai]

Oh hello. Double post? That's okay. Blog, this is!

Rhythm'd!

Boku wa Tomadochi ga Sukunai - OP
Ah! I've found so much love for this song! And this anime! Definitely the funniest one of the season, with an epic OP and ED. A little bit of 8-bit, a very happy upbeat song sung by the seiyuu of the main female.

[brandoprojectm]

My name is John McCain. And I approve this message.

I.E. Boku wa Tomodachi's OP = epicness

[Chaukai]

You Ship, I Ship
GUYS. GUYS. SO. I WAS HANGING OUT AT MY FRIEND'S HOUSE, USING HIS iPAD AND USING AN APP THAT JUST GIVES CURRENT NEWS ON ANIME.
AND.
GUESS.
WHAT.
I.
FOUND.


Interview with the creators of Madoka
Official page

Now, before you look at it and go tl;dr, I'll give you the scoop.


Newtype is a monthly magazine that covers anime and
manga. There is an English version, but the article which
the link is taken off of is based off the Japanese version.

Basically, there was an interview with the creators of Madoka, and they've been saying that they've been working on a movie project! Now, not only is this freaking epic, this is going to be a trilogy.

I understand that there are some doubts about it, I have mine too. After reading the interview, I have a strong hope that this will turn out awesome.

Basically, SHAFT, the director, said that, "It will be a story that would be even more interesting if you know the TV series." This shows that they do have an aim to bring something new to the table, although what it is I'm not sure.

The movies will be three movies, the first two will be recreations of the series, while the third will be about what happens after the series. This really can be something amazing if done right, but there can also be bad things. Let's all hope for something fantastic. I understand that there will be some inevitable spoilers but this can be something that can really be awesome.

Or maybe I'm just being really hopeful.
I'm hoping that's not the case.