this show is amazing
https://streamable.com/ansid
Another PV for the most hyped series of 2018!
We've known alot since the first PV a year and a half ago: It's based off of the first LN to ever win the Kyoto Animation Awards Grand Prize, and it has an all star production team behind it (see ANN and Sakugabooru's reports on that). The series takes place in a fictional counterpart to WW1 Europe. During the final battle of a war, Violet was critically wounded and her arms have been amputated, replaced with mechanical prosthesis she has to learn to use. Many of her friends are dead, and with the war over she has to find a new a life in the aftermath of the war. She becomes an "Auto Memories Doll", writing letters for people, while also sorting out her life. Anymore leads into major spoiler territory.
Gamers - DESU DESU 9/10
This show was an absolute surprise for me. After my roommate dropped it episode 1 last season I didn't watch it until just this past week, and I watched it essentially as fast as humanely possible with school and work. It definitely blew me away. Probably going more in depth than most would on a show like this, seeing as it's mostly comedy, but the aspects of drama and character development is what scored this show so highly for me. Each character was actually fully developed, and not shoved in there to make some other relationship work or the story progress. Even the student president had her place, though I wish she had a bit more of a spotlight.
Aguri is definitely my type of character. I'm a complete sucker for the genki, ditzy types, in any show. Her development into being a legitimately cool and nice character in the show made her even better in my eyes. Tendou was a favorite of mine from the beginning, though he got a bit outshown by the others, though I still definitely love her. She's such a well-rounded character and had so many good faces. Even though Aguri was by far the cutest for how hard she tried, her appearance, her style, and her mannerisms, Hoshinomori had her own charm that made me love her. Her speech, dress, attitude, and fierceness would have made her a best if it wasn't for Aguri.
Uehara is definitely amazing though. In a way he made the show, and he almost was the main character in good portions of the show. He's truly the best bro. Though Amano can't be forgotten. Despite seeming the forgettable MC that's there only to showcase the cute girls, I actually felt like he had a dimension of his own, and it was his legitimate good personality that made him so lovable, and a reason for all the characters to like him so much and for Uehara to make friends with him. Both the male MCs were great.
Overall, characterwise all of them were essentially perfect, and it's hard to choose one over the other, but Aguri is everything I like in a character.
Comedy wise the show was absolutely brilliant. It wasn't overbearing, it was hilarious every step of the way, and the miscommunications were so well done that it didn't feel like I was getting confused by what was happening. It also felt like it was stuff that could actually happen in real life. I can completely understand the "hey they're hanging out with someone else" jealousy. Which also makes me say the drama was done perfectly in this show. I actually felt for characters when they felt helpless, even if it was half for comedic effect.
A 9 is perfect for this show, since a 10 feels wrong without a conclusion and a lot of elements left in the air, but everything else was definitely 9/10 worthy.
ETO ETO
Now is a good time to show you this (major spoilers)
https://imgur.com/gallery/fGujR
I'm glad you liked it. While I was absolutely rooting for Chiaki, I didn't find any of the other characters interesting - other than a brief moment, with pink hair defending Amano. Any sort of satisfactory story was fucked by the final episode (aka "here's all the girls half nude for ten minutes, pls buy the Blu-Rays") for me, not to mention the "we haven't included games enough - quick, let's ramble for an episode about DLC!" shit. I don't buy the fourth wall excuse, either.
I'd like to push back on your statement of "each character was actually fully developed", though. I hated Amano, and found most of the characters to be rather one dimensional. How would you describe Konoha, for example? I feel like she exists to be a plot point... and that's about it.
That's not to say I didn't have any fun with the show - Miscommunications: The Show was fun... for a time, but the fun wore off for me for a multitude of reasons. I'm curious how much I'd like the show had the 12th episode not exist and Amano was... better. I gave it a 6/10.
Maybe it was different watching it week by week, but watching it back to back made me really appreciate each and every character. Their wants/desires and expressions, especially with all the miscommunication, really stood out to me. It definitely could have ended on episode 11, and I was expecting it, but episode 12 was a fun episode nonetheless, and stuff like the DLC talk was enjoyable.
Amano actually seemed to be really developed to me. I expected him to be boring generic IS-style MC harem lead #543, but he had his own thoughts, desires, and conflict solving skills that aren't apparent in most MCs, even outside of this genre. His passion also really drew me in to him and showed that he was more than just a way to show off everything else. I think it definitely started with him outright denying entry to the club. That already shows he has more to him than just being there to play games in a club that has other quirky characters and fade into the background as the other characters shine. Instead he denied her, and chose his own path, making his own friends, starting his own gaming group, and helping along others relationships. His talks with Aguri really showed how strong of a character he was, helping Aguri cope with thinking her boyfriend was cheating on her and trying to work things out. Sure he was a bit of a coward at times, but characters like that don't just automatically start being alpha, that's just not who he was portrayed as. I'd say I enjoyed him more than even MCs from shows like Saekano, who are also well developed compared to the average harem.
As for the other characters Hoshinomori showed how insecure she still was and unwilling to take the leap into asking out Amano, after already changing herself so much. She didn't want Amano to know that she was the two people he admired the most, and wanted to respect Tendou going out with Amano, even as her sister and Uehara cheered her on. Aguri wasn't just the stereotypical annoying school-popular diva, but actually defended her friends against old friends of hers, and tried her best to learn their world that she knew nothing of, all the while terrified that Uehara was cheating on her and trying to get Amano to help her out. Tendou really developed with her devolving into not being the perfect school idol she was before, freaking out with Amano close-by, messing up her refusals to going out, and screwing up a lot of other things about her day all leading up to actually going out with Amano, and then after that she's still insecure and scared that Amano doesn't actually like her, like when Amano asked her how to break up with someone, and she thought it was him asking how to break up with her.
Uehara was the biggest bro of the lot, and had massive development in my eyes. From going to this douche-looking popular guy to primarily being friends with Amano and cheering him on in his relationship troubles, all the while trying to keep the group of friends together and figuring out why Aguri is hanging out with Amano so much, at times it almost felt like he was the main character, and we got his perspective on quite a few scenes and episodes where he's trying to keep things going without falling apart.
Konoha was definitely the biggest plot point character there was, but I think she served her purpose to be with Hoshinomori, seeing as she came in after Tendou and Amano were going out, and Aguri and Uehara were dating the entire time, so Hoshinomori had no one to help her shine and be with her and cheer her on aside from Uehara partially. Though Konoha was never meant to be a main role, only supporting, so that's acceptable.
I know for what's mostly a comedic show I'm looking into it way too much, but a lot of the characters attitudes and plights really stuck with me as I was watching it, and I cheered all of them on. I think the author did an excellent job with portraying the characters in what was essentially a romcom.
Finally got internet at my new place. Guess I'll start with Made in Abyss since that seemed to be AOTS.
- - - Updated - - -
Late reply with NHK spoilers:
I didn't really mind the side character stories being present but didn't really feel they helped the show as a whole by taking the center stage. Satou's Senpai Island Adventure was pretty good if a little out of place (like most island arcs are *ahem* Haruhi) but really nailed a lot of the feelings in regards to those who commit/attempt and those that are/would be left behind. The marriage proposal and it being accepted were too quick of a 180 and it made the whole experience seem like she was only doing it for attention instead of feeling unfulfilled even after reaching milestones in her life i.e. having a good job and being in a committed relationship. I also didn't like how Misaki revealed things about herself and then it was kinda kept on the back burner until the last few episodes.
The MMO arc wasn't bad, and I did like how it tied into (even if somewhat unbelievably) the pyramid scheme, but it fell flat as did most of the rest of the series in that instead of being portrayed as Satou's (un)conscious attempts at finding purpose and/or salvation from his loneliness. These plotlines were portrayed in a way that belittled Satou's situation and intelligence until finally popping up with that A-HA moment that tried to make it meaningful and only succeeded to a small extent.
Goriq's thoughts below mirror mine; lots of potential ruined by poor presentation:
>mc and otaku friend make an amateur game
Rarely does this plot element turn out well and NHK was no exception. That subplot went on entirely too long.
And, again, the NHK bits:
The show was still hella interesting and I do recommend it to pretty much anybody with the caveat that you would benefit from not expecting too much.
Meant to reply sooner but cba to phonepost on this site on more than a shitposting level.
"El Psy Kongroo!" Hearthstone Moderator