Current watches

[Dracos]

I watched a bit of Grenadier.

It was impressively bad.  Even the excessive fanservice couldn't help it.

[thepanda]

Oh yeah. The only good thing to come from that show was the breast reload. Oh well, could have been worse. Could have been Fortune Quest.

[Dracos]

We have two characters.  One will be a bimbo.  The other a Buttmonkey.
They fight Evil.  Who is in it for the Evils.

[Rukatin]

Okay so I just watched the second season of Sword art online, and found myself enjoying it much better than I did the first season. Well, the first half of the first season. Then I went ahead and watched Log Horizon, an anime with a similar premise yet vastly different themes. and now I can't help but compare the two.

[thepanda]

Did you watch the recap/bridge special between the two seasons?

Also, how do they compare?

[Rukatin]

Did you watch the recap/bridge special between the two seasons?

Also, how do they compare?

The character dynamics are similar yet different, like how they both have strong, willful and intelligent main characters who are distant loners that find someway to ground themselves. But while Kirito is a warrior of great skill, Shiroe is a Magnificent Bastard coming of with various schemes and plans.
Then there's the settings. Again, similar yet different. They both have the premise of 'Oh no we're stuck in an MMO!' But the difference being first SAO was a virtual reality game while Elder Tale from Log Horizon is a computer game comparable to WoW. In SAO, they're stuck in a giant floating castle, in Log Horizon, is literal half-scale fantasy version of earth. In SAO, everyone has a clear goal: fight floor by florr to the top of the castle to free themselves, and if they die, you die in real life. But in Log Horizon, no-one knows how they got there, or why, the whole thing's shrouded in mystery that the character must solve. but first, they have to deal with themselves, as everyone becomes increasingly factionalized by guilds. Second, Death has no real consequence. 'Adventurers' come back to life at the respawn point the chapel.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Dying actually erases memories of life before they were stranded. Not enough cause problems, only tiny fragments, but this unsettles the characters.

[Kaldrak]

I just started watching an anime called School Live. While at first glance, it appears to be a happy, cutesy slice of life story about an absent minded girl named Yuki, by the end of the first episode you'll discover that it's

Spoiler: ShowHide

a total mind screw. Figuring out what's real and what's not is quite fun.

[Dracos]

I watched some overlord.  It is pretty blatantly wish-fic in anime form, but amusing anyhow.  It follows a max level MMO player in an abandoned but overtly overpowered no-humans guild on the last day of the game...and then it becoming reality.  The NPCs becoming real people dedicated to the old guildies that had designed them.

Also watched up to current on Hestia's anime... Dungeon or something.  It clicks even worse than the manga has so far.  A significant portion of the premise is just every girl goes after poor hero and no matter what they do the main duo remains poor and forlorn.  No matter how much money is collected, their situation never changes.  Levels are weird divine providence things.  Basically I begrudge the staticness of the entire situation, combined with "Okay we have a...why are even more girls approaching this guy who already has a harem?"  I guess I'm being unfair, and it is really common to do that, but for some reason in Dungeon it annoys me, and not just because first girl (Hestia) throws herself at the hero desperately throughout without notice  (Second girl instead gets the usual free ride, and we don't even see the usual acknowledgement of the pursuit at least).

[thepanda]

Just finished episode 3 of God Eater, an anime based off the first game of the same name. I'm not sure if this is a good show or if I'm just enjoying the ridiculousness of it all. The flickering, the over abundance of slowmo, how serious everything is; if I didn't know it wasn't I'd think it was studio Madhouse produced. The fighting animation is good. The animation outside of fighting? Eeeh. >_>

Still, three episodes in and I've enjoyed it so far.Let us hope it continues to entertain.

[thepanda]

Trying to get through Gate. Not nearly as enjoyable as the manga. I keep checking my video player to make sure I haven't accidentally put it on 1.5x speed. The pacing is just atrocious. It throws all the humor and emotional moments off. There is some weird editing going on. The music is lackluster. The show is just shoddily put together.

[Dracos]

Watched...2 eps of that I think?  It's terrible really.  Just from the get-go it starts mauling the manga version.

Been watching One Punch, which...not sure on yet, at least is pretty source faithful.

[Merc]

Watching Heartcatch Precure.

Tried to watch Precure series in order before, was never ever really able to get into the series watching them in order. Decided to skip ahead and generally Heartcatch seems to get good reviews so giving that a shot over the original.

I'm enjoying it so far.

Also amused by the idea that it's a magical girls anime where the main bad guy is called Dune.

[Dracos]

Dune, ...are you shadowing for a secret manga organization?

[Merc]

Watching Dragon Ball Super. It's basically the last two movies (Battle of the Gods and Ressurection F) expanded into a tv format with extra filler/details. If you're likely to complain about dragon ball anime dragging on, you'd be better off with the movies.

For the most part it's decent, though the concept of Freeza coming back and becoming a credible threat with four months of 'training seriously' was absurd in both the movie and the show. Dude's been dead for fifteen years, and the saiyans weren't just sitting on their asses (well, Gohan did after Cell, alas, but still).

[Arakawa]

For the most part it's decent, though the concept of Freeza coming back and becoming a credible threat with four months of 'training seriously' was absurd in both the movie and the show.

I saw the movie, and I have to point out the tension level for Resurrection F did not seem set very high in the first place. Rather than a credible threat, it felt a bit like Frieza came back and lo the cast of characters did say Meh. (Sure, they had to stall until Goku shows up, but whatever....) And then Goku and Vegeta did fight Frieza whilst Beerus and Whis commentate their martial arts technique amid bites of the giant sundae. Given how it was resolved at the end, perhaps giving those two a giant sundae was the higher priority issue compared to dealing with Frieza.

So it was fun, but about as high stakes as a Tenkaichi Budokai. Perhaps that was intentional?