Fall 2020 Anime. Something To Do As The World Burns Down Around Us.

[Mattias]

I managed to get to episode 8 or so, but there was nothing happening in it to keep my interest. Waiting that long to flesh out the central mystery of the show is too glacial a pace, it's makes me feel like the big reveal at the end will also be lacklustre.

[bassgs435]

Golden Kamuy S3 done. Really strong season of GK and I need S4. I love the entire cast and the plot has some great developments in this arc. Also, can be hilarious when it needs to, as always.
Sleepy Princess finished. Very funny show with a good take on classic fantasy stories. The characters are all charming and the princess herself is great. Alongside Fruit Tart,it was one of my biggest source of laughs of the season
IWGP done. Show was fine. Not great, but fine. Makoto's a decent MC and I like how the situations got resolved mostly by investigating and knowing what's going on rather than actual fighting. That said, the fights were really good. I had fun with this show
KimiSen done. Cute and cool Romeo and Juliet type of story. I love the magic vs science angle, and Iska and Alice are great and make a cute couple
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear done. Comfy isekai. Yuna and the girls are cute and I love how funny it can be at time. Not a masterpiece, but still entertaining. Looking foward to S2
Strike Witches S3 over. Goddamm what a good season of SW, even with the toned down fanservice. Plot, character and fights were at their best here. Feels good to be an SW fan. Show's open for sequels dealing with other nests, so looking foward to that

[bassgs435]

Akudama Drive over. Cool and amazing cyberpunk show. One of my favourites this season. Goddamn. Can't wait to rewatch the uncensored BD release

[SirGauoftheSquareTable]

The fact that I've seen some people think that Sukuna could still "fix" Junpei after watching this scene (apparently they REALLY took the op seriously) is kind of impressive in and of itself

- - - Updated - - -

I think the second half of this episode was better paced than the first (I can't remember if it was this way in the manga too, but Junpei kicking Yuuji out of the window only for him to kick him back into the building to the same hall they fell out of was weird).

Other than that I overall loved the episode. Junpei's realization that "Why...do I think Mahito isn't a bad person?", the laugh scene and Yuuji's rage were very well done!

One of the manga's persistent problems has been pacing, and the anime has generally been an improvement, but I will admit, some of that extended fight sequence between Yuuji and Junpei struck me as odd.

[weeblord]

Higurashi 13: suddenly satoko route?? nah jk jk its minagoroshi but instead of MOMMY shooting everyone its (allegedly) Ooishi. Unless Rena is tripping on parasites again and talking shit.

[bassgs435]

Keep in mind Rena says Ooishi went with his gun drawn and then skips to everyone is ded. She never says Ooishi did it. It was the result of an incident that started with Ooishi showing up gun in hand, but what happened is kept vague. As is what happened with Teppei. Did Ooishi free him? Was Satoko in on it? Did K1 hallucinate the whole thing, and if so what really happened in Satoko's house?

[weeblord]

yeah this was probably the most interesting new ending both entertainment and mystery wise, but i think this show shouldve either been a full remake, or gone all in on the sequel. Its been playing both sides, and this repeat of arcs we've seen but with new twist ending hasnt been working too great for me. Fingers crossed that the new answer arcs manage to be more interesting. We're probably getting more Rika perspective, which this really needs if it wants to pull off the sequel thing. So far Rika's been pretty confusingly written, she shouldnt be this mentally fragile to need K1 to motivate her with the exact same speeches he did in the original. I guess its a possibility that shes just playing weak to get K1 riled up cause she remembers that it worked last time...

also sad that we've had 2 anime but neither has adapted the end of Tatarigoroshi, which is my fave question arc.

[bassgs435]

AdaShima over. Really good yuri romance. Very introspective, which I found interesting and did wonders for the girl's characterizations. Sweet show with some drama, and a slow pace

[Mattias]

yeah this was probably the most interesting new ending both entertainment and mystery wise, but i think this show shouldve either been a full remake, or gone all in on the sequel.

As someone super on the outside of Higurashi, I thought Umineko was the sequel?

[bassgs435]

Umineko's a sequel with different cast and setting. Gou's a sequel in the sense that it's Rika getting into more loops in Hinamizawa with the same characters after she managed to reach HS or MS age after escaping from the cycle in the original
In terms of timeline Gou is after regular Higu and before Umineko

[Mattias]

Ah so it's a 'Steins; Gate - Robotics;Notes - Steins Gate 0' thing. One is a continuation of the series, the other is a direct sequel.

[bassgs435]

Exactly

[weeblord]

Some people are speculating Higu Gou will somehow tie the two together because of the flashing images in the OP. Theyre thinking among the shots theres Rokkenjima mansion and Featherine from Umineko. I've even seen some people speculate this is about how an alternative universe* Furude Rika became the Frederica Bernkastel seen in Umineko but idk man, why spend half the anime on K1's POV if that is the case?

(*=alternative universe cause Ryukishi said Bernkastel is not our Rika and was meant as a red herring specifically to lead Higurashi players to a trap)

[Solomos]

I dunno how I feel Higurashi new. It honestly feels like a lot of the changes to the established arcs happen for the sake of having a twist rather than it building up to a natural conclusion.

It doesn’t help that I really don’t think Akiko Watanabe’s character design works here.

[RoydGolden]

Just watched the last ep of Akudama Drive this morning. My god, what an amazing ending. I actually expected at least Swindler and Courier would live at the end, but the way they went out was pretty much the best possible culmination of their characters. Courier gives his all on one last delivery, one man standing implacable against an entire fleet of flying warships and still getting the "goods" to safety, while Swindler dies pulling a final trick on the world, ensuring a great revolution after her death.

I particularly liked Swindler's last moments. The Jesus/martyrdom allusions were blatant (her blood literally gets splattered on a cross as she's stabbed by the Executioner) but it gets more interesting when you consider that she actually was pulling a trick at the end. She wasn't an innocent citizen anymore, and the Executioners were "justified" in killing her according to the system they'd established. Yet her lie still ended up showing the masses a fundamental truth, that the Akudama list really is arbitrary and can get innocent/undeserving people killed, even if her particular example was misleading. She basically "conned people into seeing the truth", which I consider the ultimate apotheosis of Swindler's character.

Of course, on a pure animation level this episode was spectacular as well. Some absolutely breathtaking scenes like Courier riding through the girders of the collapsing Kansai Tower or the whole final chase in the snowy wilderness really show this series went all-out on the budget for its last outing. I am though a bit confused about the ending scene. What was the significance of the place Hacker guided the kids to, and why was it someplace Kansai/Kanto would never reach them? Was it just somewhere beyond Kanto and Kansai, showing that infrastructure still existed in the outside world despite the war? I don't get what would stop Kansai from still going after them then, well apart from it seemingly erupting in civil war by the end.

Also, I wasn't quite sure who the two figures shown stepping into the light were, interposed with Brother and Sister. They looked taller, and the female one was wearing heels unlike Sister. Was it meant to be Swindler and Courier stepping into the afterlife or something? All in all this was a very poignant ending even if it left some things open-ended (Pupil's fate in particular, though she was clearly growing to doubt Kansai's regime by that point).

[bassgs435]

ALB over. A messy show that could've been better. Still, I had fun and it looked great
Gochiusa S3 done. Cute, heartwarming and funny as always. Gonna miss the girls. Hope we get more in the future

[Laserman]

Fire Force Season 2 Episode 16: Not going to be able to look Arrow the same way again. So Nataku can fire radiation beams which is pretty cool. Rekka really messed him up and Haumea made things worse. Now Haijima Industries and the Fire Force are working against the White Clad. I guess this means that the White Clad and Haijima don't have ties?

[bassgs435]

LL Nijigasaki done. My first experience with LL and and with a normal idol show (before my experiece with the genre was only AKB0048 and Zombieland. Also Fruit Tart this season). It was nice. I'd check out future entries of the franchise or more with these girls. I might like this idol thing.

[weeblord]

Watch idolmaster 2011 and cinderella girls theyre kami anime

[Mattias]

I'd say go back and watch the original 2 seasons of Love Live.