Anime Sunday: Winners of Winter 2018

This week for Anime Sunday I’m covering my favorites from the last season. It’s my Winners of Winter 2018!

Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family: I really enjoyed this slice of life set in an alternate universe of the Fate/SN series. The fact it focuses on just food and some minor character interaction was refreshing from all the battles that occur in the Fate series. It being animated by ufotable might also have a big part in why this is one of my favorites.  Who am I kidding, it being animated by ufotable has a huge part in it.

Ryuo: I actually enjoyed this series quite a bit. While Sangatsu is a great series about Shogi it is also emotional wearing, so a more light hearted series was appreciated. The fact that Yaichi is a dense harem lead though is fairly disappointing.

Honorable Mentions:

Last Encore: I was pretty skeptical of this series after it diverged so greatly from the original storyline. It was interesting, but honestly it just makes me want to play the original game more. It also didn’t feature Tamamo, who is a much more interesting Servant than Nero in my opinion.

Hitori no Shita: I hated the first season of this show, it was terribly animated and the plot was sub-par. The plot isn’t any better, but the animation is much improved and thus get’s an honorable mention from me.

That’s it for this week’s Anime Sunday.

Anime Sunday: Losers of Summer 2016

This week for Anime Sunday I’m back with a look at the losers of the past Anime season! It’s my Losers of Summer 2016!

Hitori no Shita: I wasn’t expecting a lot, but it still was pretty sad for how poorly it was animated. Also it having characters names change after episode 01 wasn’t helpful. The artwork and plot were both terrible and was a horrible introduction to Wuxia for the newest generation of Anime fans.

Taboo Tattoo: The plot pretty much fell apart after the first episode, although it was occasionally fun to watch Taboo Tattoo definitely had a lot of promise that wasn’t lived up to in the end.

ReLIFE: I don’t know what I was expecting, but ReLIFE ended up being a pretty mediocre series. That being said props to them for streaming every episode at the start of the season. The comedy was excruciating and I just didn’t enjoy the series as much as I thought I would.

That’s it for this week’s Anime Sunday! Next week I’ll be back with a new series, probably.

Anime Sunday: Hitori no Shita Episode 01 Impressions

This week for Anime Sunday I’m going over another new series’ first episode! It’s my Hitori no Shita Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot Synopsis: The protagonist of the story, Zhang Chulan was an ordinary college student before he was involved in a horrific incident that happened in a small village.

Plot: The plot of this first episode was awesome, and I’m thoroughly intrigued by the series as a whole. I’m quite interested in seeing how well this does, hopefully if it proves as amazing as this first episode more series will be produced. As long as they aren’t animated by Studio Deen I’ll be ecstatic!

Characters: Chulan seems to be a pretty ordinary college kid, who just happens to be heading to the countryside to visit his grandfather’s grave when something horrifying happens. Baobao on the other hand is a really creepy gal, hopefully she lightens up as the series goes along. We don’t meet many other characters in this first episode, really just Baobao and Chulan. Hopefully the rest of the cast proves to be good as well.

Art: I was pleasantly surprised to see that the series didn’t use 3DCG which was a relief. The use of it for everything and everyone proves to be distracting and just poorly done most times. The art was amazing in this first episode, while not ufotable quality, it wasn’t bad for being a studio based out of Shanghai.

Music: The music seemed pretty interesting, but it wasn’t amazing either.

Overall: I’m really hopeful for this series, if these Chinese adaptations keep doing well I may end up watching I Shall Seal the Heavens one day.

For those who like: Urban Fantasy, Supernatural, Drama, Action, Good Animation, Awesome Plot, Great Characters.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Anime Sunday: Most Anticipated Summer 2016 Anime

This week for Anime Sunday I’m looking at this upcoming season of Anime! It’s my Most Anticipated Summer 2016 Anime!

Tales of Zestiria: As people who read my Game Reviews and Video Game Tuesday columns will know, I love the Tales of series, and I thought Tales of Zestiria was the best JRPG I’ve ever played. I still haven’t changed my opinion of that, and yes I think it’s better than Chrono Trigger (sorry hated the combat system). Not only is this going to be an adaptation of my favorite JRPG story, it’ll be animated by ufotable the best Anime studio out there. Zestiria’s adaptation should be amazing and I’m sincerely looking forward to watching this more than anything else that’s new this season.

Tenkyou no Alderamin: I’ve only heard good things about this Light Novel series, so I’ll be giving this a shot. I’m not super excited by the choice of art style by Madhouse, but hopefully the story makes me not care enough to enjoy the hell out of the series.

ReLife: I always thought this web comic series was awesome, and I wasn’t surprised at all that it was announced to be getting an Anime. It was perfect material for an Anime and I’m looking forward to watching this.

orange: I’ve only heard amazing things about this Manga, and the adaptation shouldn’t be any less amazing. Hopefully TMS Entertainment won’t screw it up, and thankfully it isn’t Studio Deen animating it.

Mob Psycho 100: Another Manga adaptation of another series by the creator of One Punch Man, this should also be a riot. I’m expecting to laugh a lot. Studio Bones should do a good job, so I’m hoping the laughs keep me interested long enough to continue watching the series through the season.

Taboo Tatto: I’ve been meaning to read the original source material of this series for a while, so I’ll probably give the first episode a watch and than binge read the series.

Hitori no Shita: I’ve heard this is an adaptation of a Chinese Web Comic, so I’m interested in seeing how well this can do. Hopefully this will lead to an increased interest in Chinese stories from the Japanese studios, and maybe we’ll get to see I Shall Seal the Heavens adapted one day. Wouldn’t that be awesome.

Honorable Mentions: Series I won’t be watching much of, but will be giving a try nonetheless. Or I’ll just be interested in a certain aspect of the series.

Love Live! Sunshine!!: Love Live has a huge cult following around the world, and this second idol group has been apparently well received. I confess I enjoy the music, although the original Anime series was pretty cringe worthy for me.  So I’ll be giving this a shot, but if it even makes cringe half as much I’ll probably just listen to the music only.

Masou Gakuen HxH: It looks to be a typical “Magical Academy” Romcom, but I’ll give this a shot nonetheless. Hopefully I’m proven wrong and the series is more Rakudai than something like Seirei no Tsukai.