Spring 2021 Anime: Oops All Sequels

[Mattias]

This is my first real exposure to Shinbo's artistic/directorial style (watched a bit of Bakemonogatari once but wasn't hooked) so I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but what I got was a whole bunch of ridiculously pretty boys, gorgeously rendered backgrounds, self-indulgent closeups and pretentious meandering dialogue like out of a stage-play.

This is the kind of story I normally wouldn't have much patience for, so it's being mostly carried by the visuals so far. That and the bits of self-aware/snarky humor that show the series knows how overwrought its being and wholeheartedly embraces it..

Basically Shinbo in a nutshell there. If you want more of the style but a different plot, check out some of his other stuff, although his resume is about 50% Monogatari at this point. But they all have STYLE, even Nisekoi looks way better than any generic harem comedy should.

[Rue]

86's 1st episode certainly gets you interested.

OP song was kinda wack though.

Yeah, a shame but not feeling it.

[Deathhappens]

I took a pretty looong sabbatical from anime the past couple seasons, but I wouldn't miss Zombieland Saga 2 for anything. First episode is somewhat concerning, I was hoping they'd go back to the wackiness that made me watch this when S1 started despite my dislike for anything idol-like, but I guess they didn't have much time in between setting up the difficulties ahead and catching everyone up to what happened between seasons. Hobo Mamoru Miyano was entertaining, at least, Yugiri is still best girl, and everyone's favourite fans showed why you shouldn't threaten death metal fans with a good time. All in all, cautiously optimistic.

[RoydGolden]

Watched the first ep of Shadows House. Well that was odd. The episode itself was almost entirely cute slice-of-life, albeit with an unusual fantasy premise, while the EP and ED hint heavily towards horror. I presume next week or so the other shoe will drop and the plot will become about Emilico and Kate having to fight back or escape the house. Aside from that Emilico is an endearing heroine and the hints to the world this story takes place in are tantalizing and ominous, so I'll definitely keep watching to see where this goes next even if not much has actually happened yet.

[Rafflesiac]

OsaMake looks great and Matsuoka kills it, this is gonna be good.

[RoydGolden]

Saw the first episode of The World Ends With You today. I've never played the game but this has an interesting premise and cool sense of style. Art took a bit to get used to (though I understand it's accurate to the game) but the battle-scenes were animated pretty well. I have to say though that for a death-game story the "game" itself honestly feels pretty lame. The "missions" just consist of going to place x and fighting random monsters that pop up. Hopefully later episodes will introduce more stakes and variety else this'll get boring real fast...

[Rafflesiac]

Fumetsu no Anata e was great and I'm interested in seeing where it goes next.

[Mattias]

I tried that one, but got to bored. Too much walking off into the distance. You can pull that kind of thing off if you've got interesting characters bouncing off each other, or if it's later in a season and the journey has a part in the narritive, but as a first impression, it's just feels like a slog.

I also tried The Childhood Friends Wins, and wow that was some generic harem comedy. It feels like its either trying for a family friendly Scum's Wish, or Masamune's Revenge with all the fun drained out of it. Hard Pass.

[AmADo VII]

Super Cub is very long Honda commercial.

I'm surprised Honda was willing to sponsor the anime adaptation of this novel just because the title is Super Cub.

visual is good though and it's not overly exaggerated slice of life anime with cute girls doing cute things.

[Reign]

TWEWY still feels like it's moving fast but not as breakneck as last week. I like that they used Twister for the OP; you can tell the animation was made for the old OP they had to scrap, but I always thought from the announcement that it should have been Twister anyway.

Now it's been a few years since I last played the game, but I don't remember that thing with the red skull pins erasing Players happening at this point. Is it just escaping my mind or was that new for the anime?

Also I know this is the point in the game where Neku learned they were dead but I swear I remember the anime already revealing it last episode.

[Mattias]

They didn't outright say they're dead, but they make it pretty obvious with the worldbuilding.

[RoydGolden]

TWEWY still feels like it's moving fast but not as breakneck as last week. I like that they used Twister for the OP; you can tell the animation was made for the old OP they had to scrap, but I always thought from the announcement that it should have been Twister anyway.

Now it's been a few years since I last played the game, but I don't remember that thing with the red skull pins erasing Players happening at this point. Is it just escaping my mind or was that new for the anime?

Also I know this is the point in the game where Neku learned they were dead but I swear I remember the anime already revealing it last episode.

Have to say I kinda' laughed when they brought in a bunch of random Players just to immediately erase them as a way of upping the stakes. In general this show does a really bad job of acting like Players other than the MCs exist (I presume this is from its videogame origins where those were just NPCs), to the point where I actually figured Neku and co were the only ones left at the end of the first ep.

[Reign]

Have to say I kinda' laughed when they brought in a bunch of random Players just to immediately erase them as a way of upping the stakes. In general this show does a really bad job of acting like Players other than the MCs exist (I presume this is from its videogame origins where those were just NPCs), to the point where I actually figured Neku and co were the only ones left at the end of the first ep.

Yeah there are dozens of teams playing the Reapers' Game. Something the characters learn pretty early on in the game is only one team actually has to complete the mission, and once it's done every remaining team is safe from erasure for the day. So the biggest risk of being erased is honestly dying to Noise instead of failing the missions.

Jut for comparison, the game's OP vs the anime's OP:




The anime is using the Gang Remix of Twister, as opposed to the normal version.

[Rafflesiac]

>you will never be washed by an elf

[RoydGolden]

Yeah there are dozens of teams playing the Reapers' Game. Something the characters learn pretty early on in the game is only one team actually has to complete the mission, and once it's done every remaining team is safe from erasure for the day. So the biggest risk of being erased is honestly dying to Noise instead of failing the missions.

It's still weird that seemingly the MCs are the only ones ever doing anything important. Even if it's a big case of "someone else's problem" you'd still think some other teams would try to be proactive since they don't actually know anyone will complete the mission otherwise. Heck the only times other Players show up is to be dramatically killed to raise the stakes. That really feels like the kind of thing that'd work better when it was a game.

[pinetree]

Godzilla SP is still intriguing, but to be honest I don't think I'd still be watching it if it wasn't so pretty and didn't have Godzilla in the title.

Dynazenon keeps getting weirder, and it's getting harder to see how it could connect to Gridman. It's great.
I'm starting to really dislike the protag though, Yuuta was generic but this guy is just "huh? hm. ok. yeh. mhm" all the time. I get that SSSS likes its laid back vide but I need this kid to emote more and more often.

[Reign]

At this point I actually think Dynazenon won't be directly connected to Gridman plotwise, just on a meta level with the story themes and production crew.

[RoydGolden]

At this point I actually think Dynazenon won't be directly connected to Gridman plotwise, just on a meta level with the story themes and production crew.

Hmm, so having not seen Gridman (it looked interesting but I had other shows to watch at the time), do you think it'd be reasonable for me to give Dynazenon a shot?

[Reign]

Well like pinetree said with the story so far it's hard to see how they could be connected.

I say still watch Gridman because it's really good, but at least right now (granted we're only 3 episodes in) Dynazenon doesn't seem to need it.

[pinetree]

I'd say there's no reason to not watch Gridman in the time you'd spend watching Dynazenon right now. It's great, finished, and there's no way to know if they're going to be connected in the future, even if it does feel unlikely right now.