Anime Thigh Thread II

[Enjeh]

Work by Horror Manga Artist Junji Ito Gets Anime Adaptation

Manga 'Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou' Receives Anime Adaptation



Civilization is dead, but Chito and Yuuri are still alive. So they hop aboard their beloved Kettenkrad motorbike and aimlessly wander the ruins of the world they once knew. Day after hopeless day, they look for their next meal and fuel for their ride. But as long as the two are together, even an existence as bleak as theirs has a ray or two of sunshine in it, whether they're sucking down their fill of soup or hunting for machine parts to tinker with. For two girls in a world full of nothing, the experiences and feelings the two share give them something to live for...

https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1633530

Original Anime 'Uchuu Yorimo Tooi Basho' Announced



An original anime titled Uchuu Yorimo Tooi Basho: A Story That Leads to Antarctica was announced by Kadokawa at its Anime Expo booth on Sunday. The series will center on high school girls visiting the South Pole.

https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1633553

Studio Trigger Announces Original Anime Projects at Anime Expo

A new original science-fiction television anime titled DARLING in the FRANKXX, a co-production with A-1 Pictures. The staff will be announced in Japan at midnight on July 5. A-1 Pictures' Hiroyuki Shimizu is involved with the project and appeared on stage during the panel. Trigger teased that fans will be shocked by staff members when they are announced.



Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad Gridman, a collaboration with Tsuburaya Productions (Ultraman franchise), directed by Akira Amemiya (Inferno Cop, Ninja Slayer). The series will have an original story unrelated to the earlier live-action tokusatsu (special-effects) series Denkō Chōjin Gridman, although Trigger described the series as their anime take on the tokusatsu series.



Promare, an original work in collaboration with XFlag. Director Hiroyuki Imaishi and scriptwriter Kazuki Nakashima are teaming again for the new project, which the staff mentioned will be similar in tone to Kill la Kill and Gurren Lagann — Imaishi and Nakashima's previous two collaborations. The key visual was illustrated by Shigeto Koyama. The staff mentioned that they have been working on the project for four years.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...titles/.118350

Manga 'Miira no Kaikata' Gets TV Anime Adaptation



When high school student Sora Kashiwagi finds himself staring down a mysterious oversized package sent to him by his self-proclaimed "adventurer" father, the last thing he expects is for it to be opened from the inside... by a little mummy so small it can fit in the palm of his hand!

https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1632878

4-koma Manga 'Comic Girls' Gets TV Anime



The manga revolves around the daily life of the 15-year old up-and-coming female mangaka named Kaoruko Moeta in a dormitory with fellow professional manga artists from shoujo and shounen magazines.

https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1628617

Manga 'Boku no Kanojo ga Majimesugiru Shojo Bitch na Ken' Receives TV Anime Adaptation



After Shinozaki Haruka confesses to the Class Rep, Kousaka Akiho, he comes to find that the perfect class representative might be a little bit harder to handle than he previously thought!

https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1625091

[Schirmy]

First Fate episode was pretty badass, can't lie. The whole teams of 7 squaring off is a unique spin and should be fun to see.Although, I'm not terribly in love with the servant designs yet.

[Sesto]

@Sesto

Is this good? Cause Holy shit it looks like it.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ifiu0Id.png[IMG]

Jesus, yes. Getting two 5* Servants in a single 10 roll is incredibly rare. I've managed it once (getting the same Servant, actually), but most will never see that happen.

[Suicidal Panda]

Jesus, yes. Getting two 5* Servants in a single 10 roll is incredibly rare. I've managed it once (getting the same Servant, actually), but most will never see that happen.

and you got a 4 star berserker rofl

[Zatheyll]

and you got a 4 star berserker rofl

I also have Waver and two Chevalier.

All off of two roll 10s and the tutorial roll.

Edit: Oh that was to Sesto.

[Sesto]

I also have Waver and two Chevalier.

All off of two roll 10s and the tutorial roll.

Edit: Oh that was to Sesto.

What, that was your roll? For some reason I thought it was the roll of someone you knew. Christ, you have half of the 5* Servants currently in the game.

And I thought I was lucky because I rolled a second 5* (Vlad). This is how my support setup looks right now. (for comparison, jp version)

[Suicidal Panda]

Finally it's being released!

[Zatheyll]

What, that was your roll? For some reason I thought it was the roll of someone you knew. Christ, you have half of the 5* Servants currently in the game.

And I thought I was lucky because I rolled a second 5* (Vlad). This is how my support setup looks right now. (for comparison, jp version)

I don't have the ap to do support setup yet, but this is what I've kept. A couple are NP 2.

[Simplex]

Isekai Shokudou 01 - Nice and comfy first episode. Still not sure what to expect, but a welcome change after watching way too much of shitty people doing shitty things in Jigoku Shoujo lately.

[Radio]

a welcome change after watching way too much of shitty people doing shitty things in Jigoku Shoujo lately.

It's alright, they all get punished by the qtpi.

[bals]

October 9
Kinmoza! (DVD/Blu-ray combo)
December 18
Hello!! KINMOZA! (DVD/Blu-ray combo)

Transformers: The Movie: 30th Anniversary Standard Edition (DVD, Blu-ray)

I actually just bought that the other day

[Shinzai]

Current season. Current anime. Hahahaha.

Fate/Apocrypha Episode 1 - 7/10: Aww yiss. The clock hands of Fate tick into place once again. Approaching the existing known elements of the series prior, it presents a new style of Holy Grail war and introduces us very briefly to a whole host of new characters, as well as a couple of vaguely recognisable faces and entities. The base idea remains the same however, as servants are gathered and preparation for war is made.

The show moves at a very solid clip in this opening episode, dropping a veritable avalanche of exposition during the course of the episode, but without it ever feeling obnoxious. We get to know who's who and what the basis of all that will follow is very quickly, considering the amount of information covered in 20 minutes. I like the direction and presentation of the scenes, as they never feel stilted or too rushed at any point. Everything moves quickly and without ever feeling muddled or rushed. The opening war sequences was a good play, in that it lets us know what to expect after the setup episodes.

The direction is solid, the animation is very good for the most part and the art is mostly very clean in presentation. It doesn't match up to Ufotable's unlimited budget works, but it's about as close as you're getting without it. I have no complaints or issues with the visuals of the show at all. The sound design is also fantastic in the opening segment. I say the opening in particular, because it's during this brief flurry of action that it really gets to shine. The range of intensity delivered during Siegfried and Mordred's face off is incredibly broad and powerful. The bass tones battling each other as the Noble Phantasms clash is a great sign of things to come, with diving bass and negative impulses from the energy's reactions.

Overall I think it was a solid opening episode, that has quickly dealt with all the setup preamble that the show needed as quickly and cleanly as possible.

Kakegurui Episode 1 - 8/10: Awww yisss. A gambling anime with bags of swaggering style and some of the most top-tier bitches ever in an anime. This is like Kaiji in a highschool setting, with girls being the main players. All bets are made with real money and your social status in the school is decided based on how much you have/how good you are at gambling. This gives those with fiendish personalities the chance to manipulate others and control their lives with mind-games and high risk pots, that can even result in you becoming someone's slave.

The art style is great, though the animation itself is so-so for the most part. This is reflective of the manga, in that the best shots and scenes are the manic close-ups of the characters faces and wild reactions. It's a fairly divisive style to present a show in, but I like it a lot regardless. The sound on the other hand is fantastic throughout. Staples of the high-intensity gambling genre are present here, with moody basses stings, card hands being presented with a lurching cacophony of drums and despair. And the whole while, discordant jazz blares away in the background, creating an unsettling sensation of distortion. The whole combination combines together to create a sense of pressure and panic beneath the waves of each action. I love it.

I'm all in on this one.

Also, one of the best openings of the season, so far:

[Sesto]

Koi to Uso 01 - I literally burst out laughing when HanaKana showed him the eraser she kept. It was just so goddamn stereotypical of anime romance that I couldn't help myself.

Regardless, I still enjoyed it. Probably because I've been missing HanaKana.

[Pejo]

I think they did a great job on the the music in Koi to Uso. Especially the confession scene. Not as good as something like Kuzu no Honkai but definitely enjoyable and adds to thr atmosphere.

[Shinzai]

Youkai Apartment No Yuuga Na Nichijou Episode 1 - Trash.

Enmusubi No Youko-Chan Episode 1 - Trash.

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-Kun Episode 1 - Trash.

Isekai Shoudou Episode 1 - Trash.

Battle Girl High School Episode 1 - Trash.

Knights & Magic Episode 1 - Has potential to become something that is not trash, but right now... Trash.

Koi To Uso Episode 1 - 6/10: Not a bad first episode, nice presentation, very sparkly visually. I'm not a fan of the original manga, so I won't be watching this regardless, as it's simply not my style at all. The setting and concept is unique and it'll probably make for a nice cheese ball romance and drama.

The animation is nice enough, the art is similar to the manga, the OP is neat and catchy. The voice work is pretty good too. Check it out if you're after a romantic piece.

Katsugeki Touken Ranbu Episode 1 - 5/10: ...So... This... is about... a pair of time travelling swords that have been animated in human form from the year 2250 who were sent back in time by their master Saniwa to defend the world from the Retrograde Time Army with the assistance of a literal incarnation of Firefox by defeating their monstrous servants in the past at key points in Japanese history in order to prevent the future from being destroyed assumably by some kind of temporal paradox or the like so they can't actually interfere with history while they protect it.

Yeah. This is the latest Ufotable effort and it's pretty much 100% nonsensical trash, based on a Kan-Colle game for girls, which in turn is based around famous swords, rather than ships. Why Ufotable are doing it, I have no idea. The show looks amazing visually and has some top end animation and some rather good fight sequences, but none of it has any weight or purpose. This is potentially the most fluff show of the season, despite its heavyweight credentials as an anime.

The art and animation are fantastic, not quite Fate:UBW level, though very close, the characters are well drawn for fujoshi stuff and the lighting work during night sections in particular is amazing. The music is the usual high level of Ufotable's orchestral presentations and the sound effects are strong, sharp and detailed.

What a freaking waste.

[Yunru]

New stuff:
Koi to Uso -- trash
Isekai Shokudou .. meh/boring
Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou -- trash
Battle Girl High School: Battle Girl Project -- worse than trash
Fate/Apocrypha -- 100% trash
Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun -- trash
Knight's & Magic -- meh/predicteable
Senki Zesshou Symphogear AXZ -- trash
Kakegurui -- trash
Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu -- still gota check
Enmusubi no Youko-chan -- trash

So far this season is weak.

Maybe it will get better:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=19388
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=18936
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=19188
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=18952 (that one seems interesting)

[Shinzai]

I downloaded the first episode of Battle Girl High School hoping that with a name as straightforward as that it might be so bad it's good or at least I expected some cutesy fun. I'll find out tomorrow, I guess.

I don't know why exactly I downloaded the first episode of Isekai Shoudou, but I did. I'll check that out tomorrow as well.

Isekai Shoudou will appeal to some as a comfy/relax show crossed with a "let's be semi-serious about food" show. Characters stated that white rice was one of the best parts of a meal about 15 times within the first few minutes. What I assume will be the MC girl is introduced in a really underwhelming way, as a blatant "we just want a girl to be a main character and we're not sure how to jam her in, so here's some exposition to cover us". I'll go ahead and assume the rest of the show is her learning about different meals, that the author/writer of the show knows about and her getting to know people while making food. Training montage is guaranteed. I just can't be bothered with this type of nonsense.

[Yunru]

Interesting game:


Lets see...
Dragon 40$
Yandere 20$
Maid 20$
Loli 20$

[bals]

Happy 4th!

joey chestnut ate 72 hotdogs!

[Neichus]

Seikaisuru Kado (KADO: The Right Answer) – 5/10

”The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” – J.B.S. Haldane.

KADO is a series that begins impressively: a vast, otherworldly cube appears in Japan. Its size and perfect regularity defy physics, and the shifting fractal patterns on the surface hint at dimensions curled up in ways we cannot visualize. It is more akin to a Platonic mathematical ideal than material object. Out of it comes a being: zaShunina. Our first contact. An extradimensional entity represented by a physical construct that is only the barest tip of its true nature. And so, the world is set to change forever.

However, once the glow of this introduction wears off the reality of the series begins to settle in: how does one effectively portray an entity which does not even share the same concepts of space and time that we do? By definition, we cannot comprehend the mind of such a being. Such is a classic problem of science fiction, and how it is handled separates the wheat from the chaff.

What underlies great science fiction of this type is not the wildest imagination, but the intellectual depth to appreciate that as extravagantly as we can dream, the universe is grander still. The goal of such works is not to encompass all of the heavens, but just to steal a single tongue of its fire and return to Earth with it. It gives us a glimpse into that vast unknown, both exciting and humbling us.

Unfortunately, KADO does not demonstrate this insight. Unable to live up to its lofty setting, it takes the meanest path of least imagination. I found this bitterly disappointing. To even have a remote acknowledgement of the incomprehensible grandeur of the universe is rare in fiction, let alone anime. The promise of such is what initially caught my interest, and held it even as it became readily apparent that KADO would not live up to my hopes.

A bonus of being extra-dimensional: you can juggle your own hands.

The Good:
While the core of the series was regrettably brittle and crumbled, some of the pieces that broke off still retained their value. My favorite shard was the wam. The innovative idea is not the promise of unlimited energy, or even their method of drawing energy from the anisotropic. It was the clever explanation that it was not the substance that mattered in their construction, but the form. Paper, metal, glass…it didn’t matter; all that mattered was the shape, the proper reflection of a higher-dimensional structure in this three-dimensional plane. This is thoroughly insightful, and representative of some of the deepest trends in modern physics. This sort of touch was precisely what was needed to substantiate the original premise, with zaShunina looking down on us “flatlanders,” amused at our misunderstandings of the simplest of higher-dimensional truths.

The heavy use of 3DCG was also with some merit. While it still retains the under-detailed-yet-overly-fluid appearance of its predecessors, it has made significant strides since Sidonia and other 3DCG works. The facial expressions were more varied and detailed, able to express a greater range of feelings. Aside from the curious red eye-lining shared by all the characters, they also felt far more individualized, avoiding the Sidonia same-face syndrome. There were some scenes where I couldn’t even tell the characters were done in 3DCG. The unfortunate decision to splice in traditional 2D animation only hurt the series, both due to the heavy contrast and its low quality.

My reaction to the 2D scenes, accurately portrayed in 3DCG

Where the 3DCG was really able to strut its stuff was in the non-human elements. The Kado cube was a natural fit, where the intricacy of its thoroughly unnatural patterns were given full show. The digitized views of the world and the shots of galaxies and stardust were actually quite beautiful in a way that didn’t feel like a poor second to traditional animation. My personal favorite were the jellies, which were rendered so accurately in their motion that you could have convinced me it was footage. (Note: The dates in that segment are so laughably off it hurts.)

The OP also deserves praise as my favorite of the season, with a special emphasis on the first version without the vocals. While the premise may have caused me to initially consider KADO, it was the OP that got me hooked. The wordless melody spoke of the grandeur that the series aspired to. It begins with rarefied geometry, its beautiful arcs and shapes presented to us as existing eminently before all else, before spiraling into creation. They invade the later scenes of fluid flow and neuronal firing, an eloquent expression of mathematical unity between such disparate phenomena. Human history now begins to grow, with math still dancing behind such iconic images as the Vitruvian Man.

Interspersed with these scenes are the characters, but they are treated differently than a normal opening. The images are blurry, indistinct. They are found in random locales, coming and going. It is a subtle hint that they should not be the focus of this drama, but merely temporary players compared to the grander narrative that they are imbedded in. Again, I cannot help but express my disappointment at how insufficient the series itself was compared to its evocative introduction.

Finally, if for nothing else, I enjoyed watching Tsukai. I found her design attractive, which has caused me to come to the conclusion that I must be a sucker for anime girls in suits. Go figure.

“Hmm…. according to these calculations, I really am just that obnoxious.”

The Bad:
The characters are abysmal. Shindo receives no significant development as the main character during the entire course of the series. His expressed philosophy in episode 0, that negotiation is about making sure both sides get what they want, is never expanded on or deepened. Is this purely a utilitarian view, one that he has arrived at from years of work? Or does it have moral undertones, where he feels it is fundamentally important that all people are treated equally and with respect? How about what happens when certain demands are irreconcilable, or even incomprehensible in the case of zaShunina? What will he do then? We’ll never know; he’s just along for the ride in the plot as a “nice guy” who eventually gets the girl...and then dies.

Tsukai fares a bit better, as she does have some exposition of her beliefs (although more on those below). Unfortunately, she heads straight for Mahou Shoujo-ville in episode 9, which completely negates any development she had. Hard to take her human-centric views seriously when she was actually God all along. Secondary characters were just bad. Hanamori is pathetic and grating, a half-hearted attempt at comic relief that has no place in this type of story. And Shinawa…no, just no.

And I'm sure these people were important too...right...?

However, the wreck of the characters is mild compared to the multi-lane pileup that is the plot. It begins on a spectacular level, challenging us to dream big of the possibilities. Some of the early points, such as zaShunina making up his own words to describe ideas were clever, and the moving of the cube was a well-orchestrated idea, constrained by certain factors that zaShunina was unable to describe. But around the middle it begins to slip, and the end veritably implodes on itself. Instead of a thoughtful conclusion, with humanity attempting to reach upward and understand realities beyond itself, it devolves into a hackneyed series of anime tropes.

While the obvious moment when everything went south was Tsuskai’s transformation into our universe’s spandex-clad God, I would argue it began earlier with her impassioned defense of human “pride.” Her idea, that zaShunina should be returned to the anisotropic realm because he was ruining the inherent beauty and order of this world, is utterly incoherent. It isn’t even worth taking apart as an idea, because it only exists to give us later rationalization of the plot. In the face of a being that is essentially a god itself, the best the writers can do is fall back on human elevationism: that there is something special (and superior!) about us that he cannot understand. Yes, of course. Our characters aren’t limited in their perspective and understanding compared to a being that is literally responsible for the creation of our universe, no! He is the unfeeling Architect, the omniscient being that is fatally flawed as a moral agent. Thus dethroned, he is portrayed as unstable, inexplicably experiencing and failing to cope with human emotions. It is the very worst that could have been done to him as a character. But at least there’s nothing left to ruin, right?

…and then comes their child, Ms. Deus ex Machina in a schoolgirl outfit. Leaving aside the laundry list of minor plot holes she represents, she is the magical solution to everything. She beats zaShunina up because her dimensional (power) level is higher, erases all traces of the anisotropic from humanity in line with her mother’s delusions, can talk with the dead, and even makes julienne fries. This conclusion was so lackluster that I have no more words for it. Save yourself the time and watch Arrival instead.