Spring 2012 Discussion

[Kron]

(」・ω・)」うー！(／・ω・)／にゃー！！
(」・ω・)」うー！(／・ω・)／にゃー！！
(」・ω・)」うー！(／・ω・)／にゃー！！
ﾃﾃﾃﾛﾃﾝ♪ ＼(・ω・)／Let'sにゃー！

[Yupa]

Jormungand
Action
This looks like Black Lagoon: a realistic story full of action, but also hard to understand. I don't think the characters are that great yet, but we'll see what happens next.
I may need to rewatch this to understand what happened in the final minutes...

Kron, is that from the opening of Haiyoru Nyaruko-san?

[FairySushi]

Jormungand - ep 1 extremely very awesome badassery. Great animation and music, the gun fight and car chase was excellent. Definitely reminds me of Black Lagoon although for some reason I think of Integra (from Hellsing) when I see Koko, I think I kinda just wanted Koko to be/become more like Integra. Jonah is pretty awesome and I liked it when he and Koko bumped fists. Another one to watch fully.
This season looks like a very good one. There are none that are amazing 10/10 will-be-classics like Stein;s Gate or No 6 but I would say so far there are lots of good shows this season.
EDIT: Also I hope they'll do a dub of this cause I think it would definitely benefit from the range of accents available with an english dub. They start off in East Europe right? So it would be great to have east european accents here and there to make it more realistic.

[Reiji]

Nazo no Kanajo X
I liked it and will definitely watch it
as for weirdness it no weirder bakemonogatari/nisemonogatari it looks more promising Sankarea and more fun then denpa onna to seishun otoko. absence of tsukkomi and boke makes it more tranquil ( I do get how it works and I do like it from time to time but having it everywhere can gets tiresome )

Sankarea - Concept is interesting. I like the characters. I will continue to watch. If they do it right, it could be pretty cool. If they do it wrong, it could be a terrible train wreck. Hopefully it's the former, because I see some potential.

Mysterious Girlfriend X -I haven't watched this. I'm not going to watch this. I'm going to be the smart person and heed the warnings. Drool drinking is disgusting. I don't care what this is about, this could be the most touching story in the world, the presence of drool drinking at all immediately puts it into the "**** that" category.
I only rant because my roommate wants me to watch it, probably so he can watch me cringe and suffer. I know I shouldn't judge something without watching it, but saliva in particular grosses me out, so I can reasonably infer that I would not enjoy this.

I lol at how necrophilia is less disgusting then drool drinking to some of you

[Yupa]

This season looks like a very good one. There are none that are amazing 10/10 will-be-classics like Stein;s Gate or No 6 but I would say so far there are lots of good shows this season.

I think it's a bit too soon to say. I remember the first few episodes of Steins;Gate weren't exactly a masterpiece either. Fortunately it became much better after a few episodes.

I lol at how necrophilia is less disgusting then drool drinking to some of you

I wouldn't say that loving zombies equals necrophilia (they can still move). But I agree it is creepy as well. The difference with MGX is that there weren't any disgusting moments in the first episode, I think that's why many aren't offended by Sankarea yet.

[Reiji]

I lol at how necrophilia is less disgusting then drool drinking to some of you

I wouldn't say that loving zombies equals necrophilia (they can still move). But I agree it is creepy as well. The difference with MGX is that there weren't any disgusting moments in the first episode, I think that's why many aren't offended by Sankarea yet.

dead is dead thats what turns me off vampire romance at the back of my head I never forget that they are dead
as for disgusting moments there are not that many anime where ethically or morally questionable things dont happens at one point or another

[TheBlackTiger]

I lol at how necrophilia is less disgusting then drool drinking to some of you

Necrophilia is also gross, but that show hasn't; directly shown it to us yet. If they go too deep into it, I'm done with that one too.

Haiyore! Nyarlko - Not sure. I liked the first episode kinda. THe pacing is terrible, it's just way to fast paced, but I dunno it has a certain charm to it. T=IT doesn't really do anything we haven't seen before, but I'm drawn to it for some reason. I'll need to watch a couple more before I decide on this one.

[Yupa]

First I watched the second episode of Polar Bear Cafe. I think this should've just ended with the first episode. The characters are so fun to watch, but... the jokes are very bad. I was very bored the whole time watching this episode, so I think I have to drop this one. Love the OP and ED though.

After that I watched the two noitaminA anime of this season:

Tsuritama
Slice-of-life
The story starts out as another Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko. Only this time there seem to be no moe girls and the self-proclaimed alien is a guy. The protagonist is the transfer student. Everytime he's nervous he gets this feeling of drowning, which makes him look weird to others. But Yuki (the alien) is the real weird guy here. He reminds me of Nizuma from Bakuman.
So this anime seems to be about... fishing. Which is more interesting than you'd think. Chihayafuru even made a children's card game look cool, so fishing... why not?
Art, animation and music are great. Now if the story could become a little more interesting we have a very good show here.

Sakamichi no Apollon / Kids on the Slope
Slice-of-life
Wow. This story starts out exactly the same as Tsuritama. Okay, replace the alien with a tough guy and the feeling of drowning with getting naseous.
But without a doubt this episode turned out much better than Tsuritama. Their friendship might grow into BL though, I don't know yet. At the moment they aren't exactly best buddies yet, but that'll come as they start playing music together. The tough guy plays the drums, the socially awkward protagonist plays piano.
This show also has some great art, animation and music.

noitaminA definately has improved this season! Well, that wasn't very hard compared with Black Rock Shooter and Guilty Crown which to me were both disappointing.

[FairySushi]

Tsuritama - very nice fun first episode. Quite relaxing almost. I have absolutely no idea what to expect but I certainly enjoyed the first episode. It was very nice and light-hearted. Animation music etc were very original and very nice and almost reflects the quirky yet niceness (I have no other words besides nice apparently) of the show. I'm predicting this will be a very good show and it will probably be the only slice-of-life anime I ever like. It made me smile and got rid of any heavy feelings that I had today, so yeah it's very enjoyable to watch.
EDIT: one thing though: bloody hell why do so many animes have to be about a new guy who's just transfered. God is it becoming an annoying cliche and just aaaaaargh.
2nd EDIT:
Sakamichi no Apollon - difficult to say what I think about this anime. I think I like it because of the animation and the music and also because they play jazz. I think that if it wasn't for the fact that I had just watched Tsuritama I would enjoy this more. I like Tsuritama more because it's more fun and light-hearted but I have a feeling that I will like this as much as Tsuritama. Yupa's right in that the two shows are very similar and yeah Sen and Kaoru's relationship could edge towards BL (secretly hoping it will :p).

[Darokyu]

Watched way too much anime so far during the beginning of the season. (Side Note: Continued watches are Mouretsu Pirates and the end of Mirai Nikki)

There's just so many messed up things going on this season. Some good, some really ick. Start with ick?

Upotte!! - Seriously, do I need machinegun-tans? Do I need to know that a middle school girl is wearing a thong because of her "stock"? Do I need to know that this is going to center around an inappropriate relationship between a teacher and his middle-school aged machine gun? No. Just no.

Sankarea - Ok, I wonder if this show is going to be an OreImo where there's some terrible things that are hinted at and don't happen, or if they're really going to go with the Necrophilia angle. I hope not because I liked the first episode, but I'm VERY wary at this point.

Mysterious Girlfriend X - Speaking of being VERY wary, we go from sexualizing middle school students, to necrophilia, to drool drinking. Strange that it makes Mysterious Girlfriend X the least disgusting of these three shows (and I put sexualizing a middle school student over necrophilia... or at least Sankarea over Upotte!!). And drool drinking's pretty gross. I think for anyone who's ever taken an SAT test, I can only put it this way:

Mysterious Girlfriend X : Kimi ni Todoke :: PapaKiki : Usagi Drop

I want to like it, but every time I start to it does something that just grosses me out.

Oh, but we're not done yet, there's MORE messed up stuff this season!

Sengoku Collection - This gets my "FUCKING MAJIKOI!" award for the season already. It does more in the first episode to establish what a lonely, screwed up existence our generic homeboy has so that he'd actually deal with an insane redheaded tsundere who claims to be Nobunaga Oda than Love Hina did in 26 episodes and three movies. First our generic homeboy shrugs off of a girl falling from the sky and knocking him off his scooter, since it's not the worst thing that can happen in a day for him. Then psycho tsundere finds him working at a convenience store just in time to thwart a robbery by explaining what a shitty existence our homeboy has. Then she forces himself into his home, has the mandatory "is my being naked making you uncomfortable" moment, and during dinner he thinks to himself that as messed up as this is, it's better than being alone since he's thinking of a too distant ex. So he's forced into situations where he has to interact with dozens, if not hundreds, of people with no interaction greater than "That'll be 750 yen, please" and he's so lonely that the tsundere is better than the alternative.

And then we focus on a different character becoming a pop idol in episode 2.

FUCKING MAJIKOI! Even when you do something right on accident, you're not smart enough to follow up on it.

Haiyoru! Ok, so because the true form would cause you to lose insanity, let's use the power of MOE! Um, which is worse, Lovecraft's horrors being made MOE or Oda being turned into a tsundere. What the hell am I watching again?

Is there ANYTHING good this season. I mean...

Acchi Kocchi: I don't know, I'm torn on this right now. It's so freaking moe, but I kind of like this show. It's got a short leash though.

Hiiro no Kakera: Speaking of short leashes. This has one too. Reverse harem based on a video game. Uncertain.

Natsuiro Kiseki: More short leashes. DO SOMETHING INTERESTING. I now know the four walking anime tropes that are bouncing around my screen, but you better do some fleshing out and FAST.

Naruto SD: Not the most offensive thing I've seen, but this could grow old very fast. I like Rock Lee almost as much as I like seeing Neji humiliated in every episode so I'll have a slightly greater tolerance to this.

Medaka Box: I keep having people say to stick this out and it's going to be better, but damn if I'm not completely annoyed by this show. I have the same feelings for it that I had to Rinne no Lagrange, that perky, "I can do anything" character might work better for my kids than it does for me, as I'd like some hard, cold truth to come in and crush her already. Not terrible, but the leash is only being extended because I heard so many people telling me that it "gets good". Why can't it just start good?

Space Brothers: Oh, I know, everyone's LOVING on this. For me, not so much. It feels like a catholic mass compared to Mouretsu Pirate's Southern Baptist Revival. Sure, Space Brothers has this reverence towards space, but Pirate has that, and some real joy and fun to it. This seems like it's ritualistic and doesn't have that awe and joy that I want, and I'm getting elsewhere. Short leash and you can blame it on Mouretsu Pirates.

Zetman: I hate the cheap deaths. I think that if we had some time to grow attached to some of these characters that they're wontonly killing off so early in the series that it would mean a LOT more than it does right now. I get that we're trying to isolate and torture Jin's soul in this show, but there's some emotional impact that could be built up if it'd just take a moment to let us breathe in the atmosphere a little.

Ok, that stuff's serviceable, but can I have something GOOD?

Fate/Zero Season 2: OH! Here's the good stuff. And look, Mitsugi's biggest complaint solved in the first episode too! I'm not a huge fan of the whole Type/Moon thing, but this could make me into one, because it's great.

Kore wa Zombie desu ka? OF THE DEAD: Does anyone else feel like they need to get their death metal vocalist voice out for the last three words? And who gave these guys an animation budget? My only hope is that Zombie keeps bringing the absurdity and makes it even MORE crazy than it already is. A second season with only normal Zombie level insanity will get old fast, but if they can turn it up from 11 to 12, I'm going to be happy watching more of this.

Accel World: I'm interested. There's so many points of tension here that it's insane. The technology, the relationships, it can all turn bad and go down a level quickly, but right now there's enough places this can go that I'm seriously interested in where it goes next. This might be the sleeper of the season because it could be incredible if they play with all the interesting things that it's set up in just one episode.

Jormungand: Again, the first episode has me interested and someone mentioned "Black Lagoon" in reference to this show, which has a similar vibe. If it's able to maintain being half as good as Black Lagoon, I'll be into this until it's over.

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia: I like how they did the first episode twice, good setup. I hope they don't go to that well for every episode as it could grow old quickly, but switching viewpoints like that was interesting. I guess the question is, does this have a less disturbing version of necrophilia than Sankarea or Kore wa Zombie desu ka? OF THE DEAD? What is it with romances with dead people all of the sudden? (Looks again at Upotte!!) Never mind, it could be worse.

Asking whether pedophilia is worse than necrophilia, is this what the spring season of anime has forced me to look at? Can I get a high note to send this out on please?

Sakamichi no Apollon: Now THIS I can get behind. Cowboy Bebop reunion with school students moving towards playing Jazz together? SOLD! Loved the first episode, and this immediately has shot up to my most anticipated show of the season, and the one that I'll devour with no hesitation as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Wow... what a strange season so far...