Like Princess Tutu (which I wrote about in an earlier 12 Days post), Kamichu! is an anime from the 2000s that I had good things about from many people for a while before watching it with other people last year over a number of weeks. Continue reading
As of late, I have been running into a lot of fighting academy shows, where people of varying degrees of talents and abilities are shipped off to this particular institute or that particular school to hone their fighting skills so that they may defend this country or do battle against other schools for honor and glory and all the taiyaki they can devour. It’s like being in “The Goblet of Fire” but without Cedric Diggory. This particular offering, “Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle” (“Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut”, “Undefeated Weakest Bahamut“) related the potentially sad tale of Lux Arcadia (that’s him, keeping abreast of things…..so to speak).
He was the seventh crown prince of the Arcadia Empire that was overthrown via a rebellion five years earlier. He is a new transfer to Royal Knight Academy, but in trying to help a girl, he accidentally trespasses into the female dormitory’s bathing area and sees the kingdom’s new princess, Lisesharte, naked, incurring her wrath. Lisesharte then challenged Lux to a Drag-Ride duel. No, I’m not talking about getting out your souped-up hot-rod and racing for pink slips. Continue reading
Crunchyroll launched its inaugural Anime Awards in late December with nominees in 14 categories selected by a panel of seven judges with different backgrounds. Voting begins January 3rd and lasts one week until January 10th. The winners in each category will be revealed soon after voting concludes with one exception: Anime of the Year. The winner for that award will announced live at a party in San Francisco on January 28th.
Subjective awards are often full of debates about who or what should have or should not have been nominated. I’m not going to discuss the merits of any particular series in this blog post, mainly because I have only seen episodes from two anime that received nominations – those two are Flying Witch and Space Patrol Luluco. I’m more critical of the overall categories and gaps in the types of anime series being highlighted. Continue reading
Using a screenshot from late 1990s anime Kare Kano to talk about anime from 2016 is *very* timely.
Over the past year, I saw a lot of new anime series being discussed on Twitter and elsewhere that I had mild to high levels of interest in watching myself but didn’t get around to trying in 2016, partly because I rarely watch new episodes on a weekly basis anymore. Different reasons for my interest in any new anime may be its basic premise, cool-looking characters, or word-of-mouth recommendations from friends. I put the ones missed in 2016 into five general categories: action, comedy, drama, slice of life, and sports/games.
Action/Adventure:
Active Raid; Ajin; Berserk; Big Order; Bubuki Buranki; Bungo Stray Dogs; Drifters; Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash; Izetta The Last Witch; Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress; Kuromukuro; Luck and Logic; Luger Code 1951; Lupin the Third Part 4; Magical Girl Raising Project; Mob Psycho 100; My Hero Academia; Qualidea Code; Taboo Tattoo
Comedy:
Ace Attorney; And you thought there is never a girl online?; Bono Bono; ClassicaLoid; The Disastrous Life of Saiki K; Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto; Heybot!; The High School Life of a Fudanshi; Kaiju Girls; Kiss Him, Not Me; KonoSuba; The Morose Mononokean; Rewrite; Sushi Police; This Art Club Has a Problem!; Time Travel Girl
Drama:
91 Days; ERASED; Flip Flappers; Girlish Number; Girls Beyond the Wasteland; The Great Passage (Fune wo Amu); Joker Game; Kiznaiver; Mayoiga (The Lost Village); Occultic Nine; Orange; Re:Zero; Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju
Slice of life:
Amanchu!, Ancient Magus’ Bride OVA series, Bananya, High School Fleet, Magic of Stella, Momokuri; New Game!; ReLIFE; Shonen Maid; Sweetness and Lightning; Three Leaves, Three Colors (Sansha Sanyou)
Sports and games:
Battery, Cheer Boys, Days, Keijo!!!!!!!!, Long Riders!, March comes in like a lion, Tiger Mask W, Yuri!! on Ice
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I don’t think I will end up liking all of the anime I listed above but I hope many turn out to be worth the time I put into them.
I watched one episode of HaruChika. Its opening theme song is not discussed in this post.
Good theme songs and accompanying animations help me enjoy some anime series. There were many opening and ending songs I liked hearing and watching during 2016, some of them coming from the same show.
I had been aware of Princess Tutu for many years, thanks to trailers on ADV Films discs in the mid-2000’s as well as praise for it among Twitter users I follow, but I didn’t actually watch it until this year through a Skype groupwatch over a number of weeks.
