Quick Final Thoughts – NTR Netsuzou Trap

After some thought, this one moved from probation to just being dropped outright. While it’s alright production-wise, I can’t imagine that spending more time with these characters is going to get me to empathize with them. The atmosphere is just a little bit too rape-y from the beginning and nothing about the first episode suggests that it’s going to get any better.

That being said, I’m also choosing not to rate it because I watched it two weeks ago and only now decided I didn’t want more. So, make of that what you will.

Quick Final(?) Thoughts – Love and Lies

I’m putting this one on hold, because it’s…problematic.

It’s not all bad, for sure, but it’s really middling because it joins a nice production and decent if melodramatic romance with a completely absurd premise that defies logic just so the main characters can be high schoolers. If the government were going to forcibly match people up, they would definitely not be selecting people’s irrefutable life partners at the age of sixteen. It’s a giant plot black hole that only gets worse the more you think about it that takes this story and adds a fairly unwelcome YA dystopia flavor to it. If I find out there’s more to the premise than setting up a government-mandated love triangle, I’ll pick it back up, but right now I’ve got too much to watch this season.

5/10, for now.

Quick Final Thoughts – Convenience Store Boy Friends

Honestly, this show doesn’t really commit any sins besides looking and being boring. Nothing at all about it stands out in really any way apart from the fact that the first episode didn’t have any fan service, and given that I gave a 10/10 to a romance last season, I just don’t see any appeal here. I wish I had more to say, but sometimes bad just means a lack of good.

4/10, dropped after one episode.

Quick Final Thoughts – In Another World With My Smartphone

I’ve never dropped a show before the opening even started, until now.

There was enough in the cold open to tell me everything I was going to hate about this show, from the fact that the protagonist – who looks boring as hell but in the few shots I saw from later has clearly stolen Kirito’s jacket and dunked it in bleach for a week – isn’t even really upset that he died, to the fact that he’s told he’ll be able to master magic quickly, that he can’t contact the world he knew but is specifically told that he’ll be able to watch and read things from there (?!?!?!) and then finally that he’ll be able to CALL GOD WHENEVER HE WANTS. 

I’ve never seen a more blatant wish fulfillment fantasy, and the fact that it’s so immediately spelled out honestly impressed me.

1/10.

Quick Final Thoughts – Vatican Miracle Examiner

What the hell did I just watch?

Anybody remember Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby, where the camera never stays in one place and things happen so quickly that it all becomes a really confusing, boring blur? That’s the experience I got out of this one.

I could barely keep track of the plot of the episode because of the painfully bad atmosphere and the fact that the whole thing moved as fast as possible despite how much of the episode was comprised of exposition, but what I could tell was boring and at least a little offensive. I realize that I need to give some shows more than just an episode, but this is one of those that makes doing so seem like a real chore.

3/10, dropped after one episode.

Seasonal Scorecard – Spring 2017 Edition!

I watched damn near everything this season, so let’s review!

First, the scores. If you notice things missing, it’s because they didn’t end this season.

DROPPED
Love Tyrant – 2/10, for not being funny.

Clockwork Planet – 2/10, for not making sense.

Anonymous Noise – 4/10, for skipping the context.

Eromanga Sensei – 5/10, and that was just after the first episode.

SKIPPED
Sagrada Reset/Granblue Fantasy/Sword Oratoria/Armed Girls’ Machiavellism – Because I didn’t have Anime Strike until June, and by then I’d only heard bad things.

Attack on Titan S2 – Because I never watched the first season and feel too late to get on the hype train.

Hinako Note – Because I couldn’t get through the first episode without getting bored.

Berserk S2 – Ha. Hahaha.

ON HOLD
Boruto: Naruto Next Generations – I really liked the first six episodes, but I just can’t get past the painfully boring aesthetic. This show looks like ass and that’s really a shame.

FINISHED
KADO: The Right Answer – 5/10, for falling flat on its face after a graceful run.

Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor – 5/10, for not going the extra mile to ditch stupid light novel crap.

The Royal Tutor – 6/10, for being very entertaining but also very flawed.

Alice & Zoroku – 6/10, for being nice but never grabbing me how I wanted it to.

Atom: The Beginning – 7/10, for having a slow start.

Grimoire of Zero – 7/10, for grabbing me and then going off the rails.

Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend flat. – 8/10, for ramping up the drama and the maturity.

Yowamushi Pedal New Generation – 8/10, For remaining hype as hell and twisting up its own retreads to stay fresh.

WorldEnd – 9/10, for completely surpassing my expectations, and being an excellent tragic romance.

And finally, my show of the season.

Tsuki Ga Kirei – 10/10, for an absolutely perfect portrayal of immature, inexperienced romance.

Best OP goes to Atom: The Beginning, for strong direction, stunning animation and a kickass electrorock track. Some amazing tracking shots, beautiful flow, and fun character moments that I couldn’t take my eyes off of every time it was on.

Quick Final Thoughts – Atom: The Beginning

This show was scattered in parts, but I definitely really enjoyed it.
The first few episodes sort of danced around the edges of the plot, but once the tournament arc hit, the storytelling turned up a notch and we ended up with a pretty interesting study in the possibility of A.I. in an idealistic sense. It takes a lot of work to make a character without human features work as well as A106 does, and I found him to be very compelling, despite the mixed messages of the final episode. That being said, I don’t think we’re going to get a second season of this so I would have appreciated a more conclusive ending (since they changed a lot for the adaptation, I feel like we could have gotten a better or at least clearer ending.) That being said, it’s still very loving towards the legacy of Osamu Tezuka himself, and given that this has his estate’s seal of approval, I think that should tell you that it’s worth your time.

7/10

Quick Final(?) Thoughts – Aho Girl

This one is weird and dumb and I haven’t decided if it’s weird and dumb in a good way or if I never want to watch it again. I feel like the main girl would get on my nerves if I keep watching, and I feel like even though it’s a short-form show it should have been cut down to three to four minutes per episode rather than twelve.

I don’t know. Maybe I’ll come back to it to get a better idea, maybe I’ll totally forget about it.

?/10