Just finished Nagi No Asukara, and it was fantastic. Definitely recommend it to everyone where who hasn’t seen it yet. It felt to me that it got better on an exponential scale, by the end it was amazing.
So the year is almost at a close. What did everyone think of 2014’s anime selection? Let’s pose a few questions!
Favorite anime:
Least Favorite anime:
Favorite moment:
Best guy:
Worst guy:
Best girl:
Worst girl:
Best cast:
Worst cast:
Guilty pleasure:
Biggest disappointment:
Unexpected favorite:
Favorite OP:
Favorite ED:
Favorite Soundtrack:
Late to the show: (favorite anime from before 2014 that you only watched this year.)
Looking forward to in 2015:
Pick and choose which ones to answer, or add in your own!
Here’s my thoughts~
Favorite anime: Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou. A solid cast of characters, a well-paced storyline, beautiful animation, a wonderful soundtrack, brilliant writing, and the cutest pair of teenagers you’d ever see. Kawaisou has everything I want apart from a second season.
Least Favorite anime: DRAMAtical Murder. You know, I could have put Wonder Momo here; most people probably would. DRAMAtical however had potential. It has a strong fanbase, a good overall plot, and some good characters. How studio NAZ managed to make an anime so lifeless that it became disturbing to watch, I don’t know. I’ve never been so creeped out by a show. It’s just empty… and when a Moomin fan complains that something is empty, you know it’s bad.
Favorite moment: Mekakucity Actors - Episode 7. Just before the credits role, a beautifully heartbreaking scene takes place. It’s not a big moment. It’s a quiet little sentence as the scene exits… but it’s the best thing I’ve seen from any Kagerou Project works. What gets me most is that I can’t find a single person mentioning it in a review or episode discussion. This moment makes me appreciate Kagerou Project as something more than a series of songs. It shows that there is potential for an amazing story in there. It shows that, when Shaft stop focusing on Shaft moments, they can break hearts with a single sentence. If you haven’t watched Mekakucity or anything Kagerou Project related, just watch the anime up until episode 7. Maybe watch ‘Lost Time Memory’ on YT after episode 5.
Best guy: Shougo Kiryuu - One Week Friends. When your best friend not only decides not to turn a romance into a love triangle, but also decides to stop you from being a selfish idiot, you know he is a true best friend. It’s one of the three signs of the BFF status. The other two signs being access to a burial ground, and complete loyalty.
I honestly didn’t enjoy One Week Friends as much as I thought I would, but it wasn’t bad by any means. Kiryuu pushed the anime above average in my mind.
Worst guy: Hatate Souta - Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara. There’s honestly not much to say about this guy. He’s blank and depressed, but with a mix of some harem protag tropes thrown in. It doesn’t help that the art style is unexplainably ugly…
Best girl: Hajime - Hamatora. Hajime was a bit of an unexplained wonder in the first season of Hamatora, and it was very compelling, but in the sequel she finally got the much needed screentime that she deserved. Generally she’s seen as a quiet tomboy-ish character that loves food and is very sympathetic. The juxtaposition of her cool OP scenes and her absent-minded joy is adorable, and speaking of adorable, there is some of that later on in the show~
Also at one point she has a ridiculously long fringe. I swear I have a sixth sense for detecting characters that will end up with this hairstyle. Best superpower.
Worst girl: Five - Zankyou no Terror. ZnT (not to be confused with the many other ZnTs) was an intelligent, compelling, exciting show… for a good few episodes. Starting from episode five (Five huh?) the show became so boring that I was seriously considering dropping it. Episode nine (Nine huh?) grabbed my attention again, but still…
So what made those episodes different from the ones before them? The attention shifted to the character Five. An antagonist of sorts with no satisfyingly explained motive. Episode Nine onwards shifts it slightly away from Five and back to… Nine. (Think they planned this? The names and the episodes are way too fitting.)
So yeah, Five’s introduction and whole characterization essentially ruined the whole show… Puurrretty bad
Best cast: Tribe Cool Crew! Yeah, a children’s TV show… This isn’t about the show overall (that’ll be brought up in the airing anime thread) so I’ll skip the discussion of not judging a show based on it’s demographic, but I can’t say I’m not surprised that this show got a “best” of something in my mind.
The main cast is as follows: A clone of Kamui from CFV, a Dandere from a rich family who goes to an all-girls school and somehow manages to not feel like a trope, a scary street-fighter turned good guy from the Sakagami family, a post-development Dandere who is supportive, and a fat gentleman with blond hair that all the girls fangirl over.
So far I’ve watched 11 of the 12 episodes (no idea how long it’s gonna be) and already the main characters are developed really well. The spoiled brat (Kamui clone) is learning to listen to advice, and the Dandere is opening up and being accepted by her school and family. They are showing some early signs of romance too, so I’m uneasily sailing that ship. The three other characters have had their own development, but mostly act as support for the two young leads.
What makes it all work is the chemistry between the characters. They all bounce off each other so well that I can’t help but marvel at it in surprise. It’s amazingly done. I can’t stop watching it. I can’t stop writing about it! SEND HELP! PLEASE!
Worst cast: Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete. There are only 2 characters in this show I care about at all, and one of them is criminally undeveloped and sidelined. There’s not a lot of chemistry, development, or standout traits that make me like this cast. It’s just awful…
Guilty pleasure: Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete. I love this show man! Anime of the MONTH. So much energy and excitement. I can pretty much guess what’s gonna happen, but god am I excited to see the show’s predictability! OP and ED are love. That’s all the praise I have for this show, but it gets me every single week…
What’s wrong with me? ;~; Why didn’t I just say Trinity Seven and save myself this embarrassment?
Biggest disappointment: Sora no Method. An Ex-Key writer makes an anime!? WOOOOooooooo,oh it’s trash. Nevermind. I guess we know why he’s an Ex-Key writer…
The animation is nice… usually.
Unexpected favorite: Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis. “I TOTALLY CAN’T WAIT FOR THIS ANIME BASED ON A TRASHY OVERRATED P2W MOBILE CARD GAME” says my inner Kanon… and yet, it’s great. I think the show has become less enjoyable in comparison to it’s early weeks, but it really is a great show. If this was 2012 or 2013 this show would probably be a contender for anime of the year. Unfortunately it’s 2014 and there’s a bunch of shows that are better than great. I also kinda wanna play the card game now… I managed to enjoy Sword Girls Online, so I can probably enjoy SnB…
Luckily I don’t have a phone.
Favorite OP: There were a lot of good OPs this year. Nobunagun’s, Mekakucity’s, Mahouka’s, Tokyo Ghoul’s, Parasyte’s, Ushinawareta’s, Trinity Seven’s… Buuuut I’m gonna say Shingeki no Bahamut’s. I talked about how surprisingly good the show was, but what’s even better than the show is the OP. Whoever wrote this needs to be praised.
The song is sung from two perspectives: Bahamut’s (the big bad) and Favaro (the main protagonist.) Bahamut, being a dragon, is inventively represented by screamo vocals, while Favaro sings along and voices his ideals and his view of the world. At this point in the anime (I’m at episode 10 right now) it’s hard to tell… but I feel like it’s some very clever foreshadowing. I might just be looking into it too much, but still, it’s really well done~
ALL I WANNA BE IS MEEEEE
Favorite ED: Ushinawareta Mirai o Motomete. I need to talk about this show more apparently! I could have just picked one of the few good Trinity Seven EDs, but nooooo, I had to go and pick Ushinawareta.
There’s a couple versions of the ED, and occasionally it gets an different video shown alongside it, but it’s always amazing. I love the animation of the town the most. This ending song is slow and peaceful, but it fills me with so much energy and excitement. The lyrics are masterful and the meaning of them evolves and becomes deeper every episode. The same can be said for the Opening.
Favorite Soundtrack: Most of Zankyou no Terror’s OST is suited to a very specific taste… and it’s a taste I enjoy. Quiet, melancholic, lonely… but filled with hope for the morrow. I think it’s absolutely perfect for the material Zankyou covers, and you should really listen to a few tracks. Von, Bless and Is should be good tone-setters.
Shout-out to the Tribe Cool Crew OST too.
Late to the show: White Album 2. I hear the show pales in comparison to the VN. It didn’t do the protagonist justice some say. It wasn’t as personal say others. I’m sure they are valid complaints, but I can’t read the VN, so the anime will do~ It was pretty great. Waaay better than White Album. Probably the best over-the-top romance drama I’ve seen since… Kimikiss? It’s nice to see characters acknowledge each other instead of refusing to accept moments of peace.
Looking forward to in 2015: Di Di Di. Di Di Di. DIGIMON. DIGIMON. DIGIMON ADVENTURE TRI! I am watching all of Digimon Adventure in every language I can find until this thing releases, and if it’s disappointing, I will refuse to acknowledge it’s flaws and smite all who aren’t blind! Hah, hahaha. HAHAHAHA!
So I haven’t actually seen most of the shows I actually want to watch from this Fall season because I’m one of those wait for it to finish guys. And wow looking back on it I actually missed a bunch of stuff I still want to watch. So I’ll just answer a few of these temporarily for now and then update it later.
Least Favorite Anime: Not gonna count ones that were so bad I dropped (Girlfriend, DRAMAtical, etc), so I’m gonna go with Glasslip. First off, its totally not about glassblowing, which was a huge letdown. More importantly, it made zero sense, had disgustingly bad writing, extreme melodrama over trivial things, the list goes on. The worst part was, the longer it went on, the more pointless and yet more confusing everything seemed, to the point where at the end of the last episode you were left wondering if any of the crap had even really happened. Thanks again, P.A. Works.
Favorite moment: The final scene of Zankyou no Terror. I considered the motorbike and Ferris wheel scenes too, but I think this is the one that was the one that hit the hardest. It was just a couple of casual sentences of conversation, the characters walk away, and the credits roll with the track “Bless” playing. It wasn’t some huge reveal or anything, it just made me go “oh damn” as I sat there and thought about it. ZnT may or may not be my AotY, but it is certainly worth anyone’s time to watch.
Best girl: Chitoge Kirisaki - Nisekoi. I don’t really have any good reasons for this. But a best girl had to be chosen , so it was done. I think the best reason I can give is I really like her VA, Touyama Nao. Hmm… I remember liking the character, but I don’t feel like putting any more thought into why. Oh well.
Best Cast: For now I’ll put Noragami in here, but I’d have to rewatch it to explain why since it was back at the beginning of the year. Definitely in contention for AotY spot.
Worst Cast: Gonna have to throw Glasslip in here again, thats how bad it was. There was only one character who I didn’t hate at first (the new kid), and even he soon started to annoy the hell out of me. You may actually want to watch this show just to witness how utterly… I can’t think of a synonym for confusing that has a bad enough connotation…
Guilty Pleasure: Trinity Seven. I went into this show thinking “Its gonna be shit. I know its gonna be shit” and there wasnt a single episode that was shit. I look forward to it every week. I actually want to know whats gonna happen. Everything about it is average: average plot, average characters, average OP, average EDs, average animation, average OST. The only thing above average is the MC openness to ecchi at every single moment. And yet I enjoy the hell out of all of those things every week.
Biggest disappointment: Black Bullet. I found out later that there were actually a bunch of other reasons, like staff, etc., to look forward to this show that I didnt even know about, and it was still the most disappointing. First episode and OP got me pretty excited. But the pacing was shit, the writing was shit, the ending was shit, etc.
Unexpected favorite: EDIT: Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de. Almost forgot about this one. I started out only watching because I wanted to see what Trigger would do next, but it ended up being a really interesting and enjoyable watch. It was like they took a ton of tropes and reworked them to make it original and comedic.
Favorite OP: Noragami wins out. Period. Could watch that over and over again. The air guitar gets really intense. Definately part of why I loved the show so much.
Favorite ED: Hmm, this is a hard one for me. SAOII ED 2 by LiSA was the only thing that could have made me cry in that show, not the supposedly tearjerking arc; but the only reason I decided to watch Mikakuni de Shinkoukei was because of its unnaturally fun ED (OP was pretty fun too). Screw it, I’ll just leave you with both. No one’s gonna force me to decide. Except for Sony, I guess, who has made sure Shirushi is nowhere to be found. So I guess you’re only getting Masshiro World. And while I’m at it, you can have Animenz’s cover from which I first learned of it.
Favorite Soundtrack: Taka hit it on the nose with this one. Zankyou no Terror’s OST by Yoko Kano is god tier.
Late to the Show: Fate/Zero. Fate fans everywhere would scream at me for watching this before see/reading any of the rest of the franchise, but I don’t care because I loved it all the same. Animation by ufotable is stunning. This is why I have become such a big Fate fan, and it is one of if not my favorite anime.
Looking forward to in 2015: Before today, I think I would have said Death Parade. Its a 1 cour extension of the Anime Mirai short Death Billiards, which is amazing and you should all go watch now because its just a short and you dont have any excuse not to. But now, absolutely, positively I’m most hype for Charlotte.
Want to put in an honorable mention for No Game, No Life. I thoroughly enjoyed every little bit of that show, its just that none of it was favorites worthy.
1 Like
Oh man, sounds like CLASSIC P.A. Works to a T!
Learn from this young one, never touch P.A. Works.
Except you know I can’t do that because now Charlotte is a thing.
Just pretend it isn’t them.
Just make sure you stay miles away from anything P.A. Works crap that has their classic ugly artstyle.
I have this. I hate ecchi quite a bit, but T7 is so fun. There are times where I’m like “Am I still watching the same show!? Why is this so good??” I think the writer actually has some potential to write a good non-ecchi story too.
I loved that OP. The silence just before the chorus kicks in is aaaaagh so good. Close ups on the three main characters looking cool.
I disliked the VN. When Zero came out, it made me love the franchise. F/SN is more enjoyable now that I’ve experienced Zero. Many would argue that F/SN is the better one to start with, but I think it depends on your style. The two shows are so different thematically. Zero is a dark story told from multiple perspectives. F/SN is a shounen story about survival in a strange scenario. They both add depth to each other, but which one benefits the most from the added depth is down to you.
Guess I’ll look into this one after all since we seem to have similar guilty pleasures.
[quote=“Takafumi, post:24, topic:27”]
Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou
[/quote]Dropped this after episode one for no good reason. Guess I’ll probably pick it back up with such a high recommendation.
I’m wary about recommending it. I can’t even say it’s average, but I’m invested for some reason.
It’s great. Pacing-wise, it’s like a sitcom, so it’s a daily life with character development. I’m sure that’s not for everyone, but I thought it was perfect.
Wow I had totally forgotten about that scene. Pretty intense. And that great ED matches the mood perfectly right after it.
I know answering all of this will be quite a hassle. But I guess leaving a record of the year is worth the trouble.
…holy balls, it took me a full day to fill this thing out >_<
Favorite anime: Isshuukan Friends
Because Feels. Stories centered around memories and memory loss always manage to tug on my heartstrings. I love the plot and the characters. It’s great despite being rather simple and not having a lot of complexity. Just watching the main cast brought a smile on my face.
Least Favorite anime: Aldnoah.Zero
The living proof of budget + famous staff not being equal to good anime. Sneaking Urobuchi’s name into it didn’t help either. It’s a waste of talent and skill, especially for Kajiura Yuki/Kalafina, who did an awesome job as always.
This show is all empty inside and has no value anywhere except for the visuals and OST. The only message of this show is “If Aliens were to ever discover the earth, they would invade the hell out of it.”
The entire ‘plot’ is just a repetition of the same pattern: Earth military getting its ass handed to it by absolutely overpowered alien mechs, then ONE emotionless kid walks up with low-tier equips and defeats them. Every single time. Nobody except that kid ever managed to figure out the enemy’s weaknesses. The last boss is a mech that combines the powers of all previous advesaries. How very original -_-
And the series ends with everything that’s happened being rendered utterly pointless. Like the first season was merely a prequel to the second season. Most expensive prequel ever?
I could go on and on about the convenient coincidences and artificial screw-ups of a certain character in the last episode, but that’s enough text for now.
Favorite moment: Date A Live II episode 04 - from around 11:58 to 18:18
The climax and conclusion of the fight between Kaguya and Yuzuru.
“Sorry, but I’m used to having three choices.” A scene with lots of feels and great voice acting. Usually, shows like Date A Live aren’t taken 100% seriously, but this scene made me forget that fact for a moment. Well spoken, Shidou.
Best guy: Meruem, the Chimera Ant King - Hunter x Hunter (2011)
I have never before encountered a shounen anime that has so many plot twists and takes such good care of its characters. Probably never will. (It would be downright perfect if only the author didn’t hate girls so much…)
Meruem started off as an arrogant and ruthless brat that had more power than he could find a use for and would kill his own kin at the drop of a hat. His character development was amazing. As time went by, he learned at an amazing pace. As the arc was nearing its conclusion, he had become wise enough to be worthy of ruling the entire world. He cast off all selfishness and treated both friend and foe with astounding fairness, no matter how much they disagreed and even after losing his memories.
He was born a monster, but died as a human - in a more touching way than I could ever imagine.
Worst guy: Ishigami Shunichi - Re:_ Hamatora
Here we have a guy who would surround himself with the sickest weirdos and start a country-wide rebellion, do really disgusting things and slaughter people in the worst ways imaginable in the name of his own ‘freedom’. With a smile on his face.
To express it with Art’s words: “You guys are seriously creepy.”
(Dude’s almost worse than Haruki, but WA2 isn’t from 2014, unfortunately…)
Best girl: Neferpitou (or Pitou for short) - Hunter x Hunter (2011)
Uh, wow. Best girl and best guy spots taken over by HxH. Never seen it coming. All thanks to the Chimera Ant arc, I guess.
(No, wait, seriously? A best girl character from HxH whose author hates girls? Is that even possible?)
Neferpitou is Meruem’s most loyal Royal Guard. But unlike the other two, she doesn’t do things that would upset her king if he found out. She, too thought about how Komugi is bad company for the king, but after just one magic phrase of her king - “Pitou, I’m counting on you.” - she discarded all bad thoughts and personal concerns. She doesn’t like Komugi at all but she protected her like a mother cat would protect her kitten, disregarding her own safety - because Komugi is a very important person to Meruem.
That scene was mind-bogging, because at that moment, the positions of hero and villain were completely reversed! Pitou was the one trying to protect an innocent life while Gon was threatening to destroy it!
What happened after that is similarly impressive. Pitou fought for her king until death… and beyond. Nobody can hold a candle to her when it comes to loyalty.
Worst girl: Mizusaka Yuzuki - Sora no Method
She is selfishness incarnate and shows no consideration to her sibling, friends and people who are doing her a favor. And she’s not very intelligent, either. Well, I went into detail in the Sora no Method topic.
Best cast: Isshuukan Friends
Not a single unnecessary character. The low number of characters allows every character to receive proper development and screen time. Every character (except for those that are obviously just mob chara) contributes a lot to the series. They are all fun to watch.
Worst cast: M3 - Sono Kuroki Hagane
They’re all kinda lifeless and unspectacular. The only characters that stand out the most - and are at least somewhat interesting - are the villains. Well, yes, every character had one or two good moments. But generally, they were just really boring.
Incidentally, PSYCHO-PASS 2 was very close to getting this spot.
Guilty pleasure: Soul Eater NOT!
I started watching this show because I refused to watch Soul Eater a few ears earlier - I disliked the art. So I wanted to take a closer look at the Soul Eater universe through different art.
So, this is a school life anime with full moe style girl cast. Normally it’s totally not my cup of tea. But strangely enough, I didn’t get bored by it. It was entertaining for some unknown reason. Guess the characters were interesting enough and the comedy was at least decent.
Incidentally, I picked up Soul Eater shortly after ^^
Biggest disappointment: PSYCHO-PASS 2
The awkward moment when you watch an Urobuchi anime… and there’s no Urobuchi!
There’s this totally OP villain and the show is even more brutal and disgusting than the first season. But Urobuchi wasn’t around to give all this slaughter and gore a meaning. There were some really shocking scenes, but they were kinda pointless. Tsunemori Akane wasn’t Tsunemori Akane anymore. The old cast didn’t matter at all. They’re all dead inside. The new cast got all the screen time but didn’t use it efficiently. All character “development” happened instantly at a random point in time. Like flipping a switch. Some newcomers looked interesting at first but became disappointing later.
Unexpected favorite: Black Bullet
After watching the first episode, I was pretty sure: This show will be really awkward. They seemed to be rushing things, some lines were kinda stupid, OP villain, etc. But as the show progressed, it kept getting better. It improved a lot just around the end of the first arc. Main characters were fleshed out, interesting characters were introduced, though not all of them got enough screen time. Drama was decent. Yes, the show definitely wasn’t without flaws, but I did manage to feel for the main cast. The danger and suffering felt real.
Favorite OP: Strike the Blood OP 2 - Fight 4 Real by Altima
This really was a hard choice to make. Music-wise, we really were in for a treat this year. Especially fripSide brought out a lot of OPs. Incidentally, I dropped Strike the Blood halfway through, but I really like Altima’s style. Their “Burst the Gravity” (Accel World OP 2) is my favorite opening ever.
Close second place this year goes to: Re: Hamatora OP - Sen no Tsubasa
Favorite ED: Hunter x Hunter (2011) ED 5 - Hyori Ittai by Yuzu
This was also a hard choice, but in a different way. There’s been plenty “good” EDs, but none really stood out. So I sat back and tried to remember which anime it was where I let the ED play until the end instead of skipping it the most. And according to my memory, it was Hunter x Hunter (2011) - exactly when this particular ED was playing.
Favorite Soundtrack: Aldnoah.Zero OST by Kalafina by Hiroyuki Sawano (my bad).
Worst anime, best OST. What a farce. What a waste. Every time “MKAlieZ” played in Aldnoah, the mood changed instantly as if the atmosphere was cut in half.
Late to the show: Gosick
Did I mention that I used to read oldschool mystery (as in, detective) books back in the day? Well, the viewers didn’t actually get to try and solve mysteries. They weren’t really meant to in the first place. But the mystery was there. I really loved the adventures of Victorique and Kujou. Both of them were incredibly interesting and fun to watch. I’m not even sure I can put a finger on what exactly made this show so amazing. It just was.
Did I mention the beautiful Ending themes? You should totally listen to those!
Looking forward to in 2015: Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Zoku (Oregairu S2 for short)
HELL YEAH! I’ve been waiting for this ever since Season 1 ended. Oregairu is on the top 5 of my favorite anime, Hikki is one of my top 10 favorite characters. I love the plot, the characters, the comedy. Especially the comedy which is absolutely my cup of tea. High-level intellectual word battles mixed with all kinds of other funny things depending on the characters. Hikki’s cynicism and witty remarks are top tier. So is Yukino’s verbal abuse. Only very few characters are actually flat. Everyone has a hidden side to them, even if they look one-dimensional at first. Oftentimes, the plot is tricky. Oftentimes, I didn’t understand why exactly things happened and why certain characters did certain things. I had to re-watch the episodes and discuss them to fully understand everything. It wasn’t mindfuck. But certain things needed to go ‘click’ in order to gain full understanding because certain characters, mostly Hikki, behave in a very non-standard way.
There’s a certain forum on the internet where I spent days and months talking about LB. Well, I spent almost as much time talking about Oregairu in the same forum. And I enjoyed every second of it. There’s just so much discussion potential in this show.
[quote=“yerian98, post:25, topic:27”]
Want to put in an honorable mention for No Game, No Life.[/quote]
Dito. Honorable mention from me as well. Though they could’ve cut down on the fanservice a bit, there really was nothing to complain about with this show. Very enjoyable. Sora was actually reaaaaaally close to being best guy.
Dedication…! I spent like… 20 minutes on it x.x
I enjoyed it, but I think it fell flat somehow. It just doesn’t feel very memorable… andthatsoundsreallycruelnow.
I’d happily rewatch it or check out the source material, but the ending was very abrupt.
DaL gets a lot of hate. Too many people compare it to TWGOK. It’s not the best at what it did, and both seasons have their problems, but I enjoyed it a lot. The story was iffy, but the characters were all great, and they really know how to build hype.
I hear so many people saying this, but I remember feeling like it was a fairly generic school rom-com show. I watched it early 2014 when I had a craving for stupid fun, and was really surprised when I found out how popular it was, particularly on reddit. (I didn’t watch much anime in 2013 because nothing really stood out.) I’d say it was on equal footing with Noucome… about a 6 or 7. It’s not bad, and there’s always an audience for this stuff, but I just can’t understand why it’s so highly regarded in comparison to everything else out there.
You must hate Guilty Crown 
[quote=“Naoki_Saten, post:33, topic:27”]
Aldnoah.Zero OST by Kalafina.
[/quote]Hate to break it to you, but Hiroyuki Sawano was actually the composer of Aldnoah’s OST. NOT that thats a bad thing (I actually prefer Sawano to Kajiura). You are correct in the fact that the OST was epic, though; it was probably my second chioce.
[quote=“Naoki_Saten, post:33, topic:27”]
The danger and suffering felt real.
[/quote]Thats actually right were it started getting very bad for me. Just like an episode before when Rentaro was shot a bunch the danger felt real, but since it was revealed that he was actually OP the whole time it was just like welp, we know whos gonna win here. And then the pacing was disgusting. It went from whoa theres an evil OP villain, to who cares about him anymore there a giant OP monster, to oh well we killed the monster easy now we have rise through the ranks because everyone is numbered now for some reason all in one episode. And then the transitions from one LN to the next stood out so bad it was ugly. And then it couldnt decide if it wanted to be dark, or be shounen, or be romance; it was all over the place. Oh yeah and the animation was crappy. Welp theres my rant. Maybe I’ll read the LNs at some point; I’m always interested to see if it was the source material that was bad from the start or if the anime producers just screwed it up.
hmm, what do you think about samurai shamploo ost?
Plot holes aside (while not ideal, the VN helped me get over those) emptyness was the charm of GC for me. A character who is pathetic and emotional, and a character who is empty and emotionless. They are extremes and opposites. They can’t help each other with problems based on mind-set. There’s no real way for these characters to understand each other, but they want to. So they go through a bunch of conflicts together yet alone.
I actually haven’t seen Samurai Champloo yet. Thats the hip hop one right? I usually enjoy hip hop, so I certainly don’t think I’ll have a problem with it. Why do you ask?
I didn’t watch anything during the year until this last season. I was too busy finishing Rewrite during the first half of the year, and I during the second half I was just uninterested. It may be a little repetitive, but that’s all I got.
Favorite anime: Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. At first I didn’t believe I would like this anime so much, but all the sad vibes it transmits and the musical environment really caught me up.
Least Favorite anime: I didn’t watch enough anime this year to determine that. I dropped Kuroshitsuji, though.
Favorite moment: Arima Kousei finally playing with all his heart during the recital. He didn’t even cared that he had been disqualified; he would just play for the love of his life.
Best guy: Arima Kousei. Even though he had a rough past and couldn’t even listen himself play anymore, he had the guts to start playing again and get over all those painful things he had to suffer when he was a kid.
Worst guy: I didn’t hate anyone in special.
Worst girl: None either.
Best cast: I’m not sure. Not all the series I’m watching have finished, so I don’t know if the characters I find unnecessary will become necessary at some point.
Worst cast: Sword Art Online. It may not be the worst, but I really found too many unnecessary characters. I mean, even Kirito became kinda unnecessary at the end. If they hand’t had needed the camera, he wouldn’t have played anything relevant during the last arc .
Guilty pleasure: Ookami shoujo to kuro Ouji. I enjoy shoujos. End of story.
Biggest disappointment: Parasyte. I’m still watching, but it has already lost a lot.
Unexpected favorite: Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. At first I thought it would be another sad anime with nice music, but it turned out to be a lot better than that. The sad part hasn’t even come yet; still they’re already giving hints about what might happen. I enjoy speculating about the upcoming of the stories and also sad animes, so that might be playing a big part of why I like this anime. The story is very sweet too.
Favorite OP: Hikaru Nara -Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso
Favorite ED: Shirushi - Sword Art Online
Favorite Soundtrack: I always liked Sword Art Online OST, specially when it sounds all elfic.
Late to the show: Robotics; Notes. I’m not much into mecha animes, but I had already watched Head;Chaos and Steins;Gate, so I decided to watch this too, and was not disappointed. At first it’s all fun and the main characters have minor problems, but then you realize how fucked up is everything. It’s a real mindblow, specially because they just throw all this information at you have to tie all the stuff together to actually understand what’s going on. I had to stop the videos several times to make my mind.
Looking forward to in 2015: I don’t even know what’s coming next year, but for now I’m looking forward to Charlotte (obviously) and Gintama. Personally, I still don’t believe there’s going to be another Gintama season. I finished watching the series a year ago and loved it from beginning to end. It has a lot of comedy and parodies, but also lots of action, so it’s really catchy. Totally recommend it.
known for one of the best anime ost’s
I hate to defend SAO, but just from looking at the changes in OPs going into Mother’s Rosario you can see that Asuna and the Sleeping Knights were the main cast, and Kirito & co. were minor characters. Kirito didn’t have much relevance because he wasn’t a main character.
The big problem with the anime is that there isn’t enough time between arcs for people to differentiate them, and two to three arcs are lumped together and titled as a single thing. SAO, ALO, GGO, MR, and the side stories are separate things, each with a different cast, theme, and level of quality… but in the anime world SAO + side stories + ALO = SAO, and GGO + filler + MR = SAO2.
The show has changed in tone a lot due to how the anime presented early Shinichi, but I’m still excited to see where it ends up. I’m interested in seeing how it was paced in the manga too, and see what difference Shinichi’s appearance makes.
