General Anime Thread

@Holofan4life  
Any context?

@Extre-Vile  
Trans lesbians are cute.

@Scrabbleman  
What the fuck?

Wiki***ia’s character description of Saki from Zombieland Saga (emphasis mine):  

 
Are Tamagotchis that obscure now?

@Flying Pancake  
Haha, wow.

So, my favorite new theory about Bunny Girl Senpai is that Schrodinger’s Cat was not a metaphor for Mai’s existence, but rather her love. i.e. Schrodinger’s Cat is tsundere.

A Certain Magical Index episode 9 nearly made me vomit. Not because it is bad (It is actually amazing), but because of what happened to the sorcerer.

Oh, my God. The sorcerer bought Touma a fruit basket. That’s so cute.

Oh, my God. The sorcerer bought Touma a fruit basket. That’s so cute.

I’m finally on episode 10– Misaka Mikoto. Time for the best episode.

Tsundere time

Onee-sama Onee-sama Onee-sama

I love Misaka’s clones, is what Misaka said.

I love Misaka’s clones, is what Misaka said.

Best episode yet, Misaka proudly proclaims.

 
It’s sad because it’s true.

I’m about to hit 5 million karma on Reddit. I’m also the 20th person with the most karma on Reddit. And I did it mostly through anime.

So, here are my rankings for the first three eps of the season. As always, my standards for artistic merit are completely subjective and arbitrary.
 

 
Bunny Girl Senpai is this dumb, hyper-romantic, chuuni thing and I’ve really fallen for it. It’s dialogue-heavy but it’s written, directed, and acted well enough to convey a lot of information through organic dialogue, without having to resort to constant exposition or exaggerated expressions (i.e. Slime). Hell, it might even get better if its scientific allegories start to make sense.
 
Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara has excellent direction and visual storytelling, and great use of narrative design. We still have to wait and see where the characters and story go, but it looks like it could be great.
 
Golden Kamui’s second cour is more of what you expect from this show at this point: good writing, good design, so-so production. No CG bears so far, at least.
 
Aikatsu Friends’ third cour starts off in a surprisingly dramatic direction and executes it wonderfully. I can’t honestly expect to be like this the whole cour, but this is a hell of a start.
 
Yagate Kimi ni Naru is a slow-burning yuri romance. Good layouts, direction, and visual storytelling. Most notably, despite being a high-school romance anime, there hasn’t actually been much drama. Nothing has been contentious, nobody has yelled or cried. It’s been rather delicate and nuanced. (I dare say, pure.) I doubt it will have much crossover appeal, but it looks to be pretty damn good for what it is.
 
Anima Yell is exactly what I hoped it would be, good slice-of-life CGDCT. In terms of subtext, it’s pretty tame compared to the rest of the year (or even this season), but there’s nothing wrong with that. Not every show has to be a metaphor for relationships. I don’t feel like there is anything really groundbreaking in this, but the execution has been very solid.
 
Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru has been carried by Haiji and its production value, but I’m still into it. It hints that it might not be about winning and losing. So it might not actually be about running, which I would be okay with. I dunno about this bullying backstory, though.
 
Goblin Slayer. I’m still on board this ride. The way it depicts heroism is rather interesting, we’ll see how it holds up as it introduces conflicting philosophies and expands its narrative scope.
 
Hugtto Precure’s crossover episodes were a bewildering spectacle. It hasn’t done much else other than set up the movie, so I can’t say much else about it.
 
Lily Spa aka Release the Spyce. Seeing Namori’s design in this sort of story is a bit jarring. The action is just okay and relationship development still needs work, but there’s enough mystery and subtext to keep things interesting. It’s okay so far, just waiting to see how it holds up after the inevitable grimdark twist.
 
Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san is comfy and cute, and pretty gay. The show manages to subvert some vampire tropes, which I enjoyed. The timing could be improved, and the animation is not as expressive as I’d like. Overall, it’s alright.
 
Zombieland Saga seems like an idol anime for people who don’t like idol anime. Since I actually like idol anime, a number of things in this show don’t work for me. I like most of the individual elements. The idol stuff is good, the zombie stuff is interesting, the Producer I don’t care for. But I feel like they don’t mesh well. I like its underlying idea of the girls finding humanity within their performances. The execution of the performances are fine, and I appreciate its satirical elements. But, in my mind, the fact that the heroically-framed Producer has forced this fate on these kids for his own benefit undercuts everything the show is trying to do. I think, at best, it’ll be a fun but shallow idol anime. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I had higher hopes for it based on the first ep.
 
Objectively, Gridman is not bad. The design, layouts, and animation are legit. The character drama is written, shot, and paced well. The mystery and the tension are nice. Until the moment you’re reminded it’s a shounen toy anime and all those dissipate. It creates this tonal inconsistency, although there’s so much care put into the composition of each scene that it might actually be on purpose, maybe? I’m not nostalgic for its references, and the action doesn’t grab me at all. It’s not bad, it just isn’t really for me. I guess the character stuff is good enough for me to stick around. Maybe the twist will make it more interesting.
 
(Akane > Rikka.)

@dt  
Ironically both Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken and Zombieland Saga are my favorite anime of the season. Also, I like idol anime and I still like Zombieland Saga.