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: Taboo Tattoo Episode 01 Impressions

This week for Anime Sunday I’m covering a brand new series from the Summer 2016 Season! It’s my Taboo Tattoo Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot Synopsis: After saving a homeless man from some thugs, Seigi receives a strange tattoo from the man as a gift. This act leads to a series of events that will pull Seigi into the middle of a conflict…

Plot: This first episode was way more intense than I thought it would be, but I’m not complaining at all. I loved every single minute, and I’m kind of regretting that this is the first series of the Summer 2016 Season I’ve given a look at other than Tales of Zestiria’s adaptation, which I’ve had to postpone writing about until after today’s upcoming episode is aired. The reason I’m regretting it is that I don’t have more episodes of this series to watch, and I very rarely feel that way after just a single episode these days. I loved all the action we got to experience in this first episode, and for a premier episode it had an awesome amount of it.

Characters: Seigi is an awesome main character, and totally lives up to his name (Seigi means justice, a do-gooder would be called Seigi no Mikata which translates to Ally of Justice). I actually enjoy him, he’s clearly well aware that he’s not powerful even though he can take out the average thug on the street with ease and that makes him a very likable character. Touko, his childhood friend we didn’t get to see much of in this first episode, but from the time we did see, we can tell that she deeply loves Seigi and it’s fairly obvious to just about everyone, except maybe Seigi himself. Our female lead Izzy on the other hand is a bit of a creeper, and honestly I hope we don’t get to see any sort of love triangle between the three characters. The only other character we get to meet is Tom, an assistant who is not very competent thus far. Maybe he’ll shape up, but I see him being a rather minor character overall from just this first episode. Who knows though, this is after all just the first episode.

Art: J.C. Staff is the studio behind the series, and they’ve done some amazing work with past series including a personal favorite of mine the Toaru series of Anime adaptations. This adaptation of Taboo Tattoo doesn’t disappoint in the least and I loved every single minute of it. This is just the first episode however so I won’t be too surprised at any animation flubs in later episodes. Not every studio can be like ufotable and just create masterpieces of animation.

Music: The music we got to listen to in this episode was pretty good, and although not the best I’ve listened to, it’s probably in the top 10%. The opening theme by May’n wasn’t bad, and the ending wasn’t terrible either, but neither was really noteworthy either.

Overall: This first episode shows great promise, if the quality doesn’t dip too much in later episodes this might turn into one of the gems of the season.

For those who like: Urban Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Seinen, Action, Drama, Martial Arts, Exellent Plot, Fantastic Cast of Characters, Great Artwork, Good Music.

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.