Spring 2014 Anime Season

Topics on anime/other animation TV series, OVAs, specials, and movies
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Keropi
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

Post by Keropi »

theultimatebrucelee wrote:The best fight in the series I think was the fight with saber alter, right? That was a pretty good fight but it should've been put at least because its quite the unexpected character appearance, and, so much so it kinda made the fight with berserker afterwards not so impressive, and I thought the final boss was gonna be gilgamesh-_- Hopefully season 2 will be better organized.
Yeah, it did make the later fights less impressive. There's supposed to be another good fight in the next season so I look forward to seeing that.

Getting back to the Spring 2014 anime season, today I realized that the main reason I like "Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei" ("The Irregular at Magic High School") is the same reason I like the "One Punch" manga.

Not a huge spoiler, but it's still a spoiler for Mahouka and One Punch:
The main characters of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei and One Punch are frequently underestimated. They are humble and don't make a big deal about about their abilities. They actually try to hide their powers to a certain extent. It's fun watching them fight the bad guys.
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Keropi
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

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AniChart has a Spring season list up:
http://anichart.net/spring

I'm not sure how up-to-date it is though.

Since I only watched half of the Broken Blade movies and because they are adding new content, I guess I'll watch the Broken Blade TV series too.

Also I'll check out "Seikoku no Dragonar". This is an ecchi, mostly female cast story about a boy and his dragon girl companion. The manga was okay/fair. I always pictured the main girl's voice sounding like Rie Kugimiya's since she's done so many of those roles in her career, but it's not her this time.

I've enjoyed the manga in this way:

1. Broken Blade (7.50) after 69
2. Black Bullet (7.20) after 15
3. Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (7.10) after 26
4. Hitsugi no Chaika (6.80) after 22
5. Issuukan Friends (6.70) after 13
5. No Game No Life (6.50) after 6
7. Akuma n Riddle (6.40) after 13
7. Seikoku no Dragonar (6.40) after 23
9. Soul Eater Not (6.30) after 13
10. Kanojo ga Flag (6.00) after 16

So you know what I'm looking forward to seeing the most. :P
Last edited by Keropi on Sat Mar 29, 2014 10:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Keropi
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

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Random Curiosity has their season preview up:

http://randomc.net/2014/03/27/spring-2014-preview/
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theultimatebrucelee
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

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This looks to be quite a season. Quite a few animes that would like to check out. Didn't see Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo before, this is probably going to be on the top of my list, aside from Akuma no Riddle(too bad only 12 eps), Hitsugi no Chaika, Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin, M3: Sono Kuroki Hagane and Sidonia no Kishi. Alongside of Fairy Tails, hopefully back for another few years worth lol...and I counted another 13 series that I'd be interested to check out as well...and what the heck is this Soul Eater Not!? definitely need to check this out as well.
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

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theultimatebrucelee wrote:...and what the heck is this Soul Eater Not!? definitely need to check this out as well.
Have you seen the Soul Eater anime or read the manga?

Soul Eater Not is a side story to Soul Eater. The Soul Eater school is divided into combat and non-combat sides of the school. The combat side (which was what Soul Eater focused on) specialized in honing fighting abilities. The "Not" side (non-combat side) mainly learned non-combat subjects. "Soul Eater Not" focuses on three girls who attend the "Not" (non-combat) side of the school.
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theultimatebrucelee
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

Post by theultimatebrucelee »

Ahh, that's somewhat good to know. Really enjoyed Soul Eater so was carious to know what this one is about...but taking out the combat then there would only be half the reason for watching it. Hopefully the story is good then.
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

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I'm not sure how the story is. I only got to read thirteen chapters of the manga before it got licensed. The story was just starting to get going around the point I stopped. The beginning part was almost like a regular "cute girls going to school slice-of-life" story except that it was done in Soul Eater style and that it still had Meister/weapon stuff in it.

Guess I'll finally get to find out what's been going on in the story for the past twenty two months. :D

The old Soul Eater characters do show up from time to time. It's interesting to see how they are perceived from an outsider's perspective.

I need a new schedule webpage because the old, reliable Fansubwiki no longer exists. I wonder which shows that I look forward to seeing are going to air first (and when?).

EDIT:

It still lives!

http://fansubdb.com/wiki/Spring_2014#New_Shows
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

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Winter is over, Spring is upon us. Last season I followed 4 brand new shows (not counting Kill La Kill since that started in the Fall), so given work load I'm looking to keep it at around 4 max. For now, my picks are:

-Black Bullet
-Date A Live II
-Nobunaga the Fool (cont'd)
-Knights of Sidonia

I don't count Fairy Tail here since I just finished season 1, so I'll probably get the eps but not watch them until I'm caught up.
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Keropi
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

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I've been enjoying Isshuukan Friends (One Week Friends). I like it more than the manga so far. In one part it was better than the manga. I've been enjoying Knights of Sidonia too. It's quite an interesting watch.

I think Mahouka is doing alright. The first arc is the least interesting arc out of them all. I'd much rather see the second or third story arcs. I think the novel/manga adaption is fairly decent.

Black Bullet is not a good adaption. The fights were not intense, but quick, unexciting and unemotional. It's disappointing.

I thought the Hitsugi no Chaika adaption was going fine until they got to the fourth episode. They really cut the heart out of that part. It wasn't essential to the main plot, but boy I really wanted to see those heart rendering scenes. Instead we got nothing. No mention of the sisters tragic background stories at all. The artwork is nice though as expected from BONES.

I like No Game No Life. Akuma no Riddle is kind of off and on with me. I'm not expecting too much from it. The character designs are nice however. I like the second season of Date A Live compared to the first season because the humor is not as over-the-top. I'm looking forward to the next story arc if it's what I think it is.

I think Seikoku no Dragonar is a bit better than the manga because of the artwork change and because they trimmed off some of the irritating parts of the manga. Soul Eater Not is fine. I like it. I lost interest in Blade and Soul. The Kanojo ga Flag anime was more annoying to me than the manga so I had to stop watching it. :D

How are you guys doing with the anime watching? The season is going better than average for me so far.
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

Post by theultimatebrucelee »

lets see...another 8 weeks or so for the season to end lol I couldn't resist to peek in on Akuma no Riddle, and do agree the character design is nice. Not sure how the story is but I like the battles, especially close combat focused ones, especially all female cast :D

The only series I couldn't wait at all on is the continuation of Fairy Tail, was disappointed right off the bat though with many mentioned as the "manga style" character design...totally killed the eye candy for me, big time since it used to be one of the series specialty. and did I mention that I got bugged to no end with this new character design :P
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Keropi
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

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Oh yeah? So they changed the character designs of Fairy Tail eh? I should check that out. I get a lot of small sized episodes just in case I ever feel like watching them someday. You never know when stuff will disappear from the streaming sites.

I liked Haruki's character design even though she did look like she was inspired by Madoka Magica's Kyoko. :P

I've been using Crunchyroll for some episodes. I must have watched at least some of around eight episodes from this season - mostly Isshuukan Friends because it's on at the right time for me to see it that way..
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

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Time for some statistics... :)

Average MAL scores among the 50-400 rated shows from Sring 2014 as of May 9, 2014:

1. Cardfight!! Vanguard: Legion Mate-hen -- 7.53 (scored by 308 users)
2. Puchimas!!: Petit Petit iDOLM@STER ONA -- 7.12 (395)
3. Lady Jewelpet -- 6.87 (84)
4. Nandaka Velonica -- 6.25 (166)
5. Keroro Gunsou (2014)(Flash Animation) -- 6.15 (205)
6. Dragon Collection -- 6.14 (335)
7. Marvel Disk Wars - The Avengers -- 6.12 (327)
8. Oreca Battle -- 5.57 (217)
9. Kantoku Fuyuki Todoki -- 5.53 (385)
10. Hero Bank -- 5.42 (236)

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Average MAL scores among the over 400 rated shows from Spring 2014 as of May 9, 2014:

These are highly thought of:
1. Mushishi Zoku Shou -- 8.89 (scored by 3706 users)
2. Fairy Tail (2014) -- 8.76 (13346)
3. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders -- 8.57 (4064)
4. No Game No Life -- 8.53 (16907)
5. Dragon Ball Kai (2014) -- 8.33 (1599)
6. Haikyuu!! -- 8.25 (6738)
7. Isshuukan Friends -- 8.03 (7890)
8. Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei -- 7.94 (11645)
9. Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou -- 7.81 (7265)
9. Love Live! School Idol Project 2nd Season -- 7.81 (1931)

These are decently thought of:
11. Black Bullet -- 7.79 (11965)
12. Date A Live II -- 7.78 (6214)
13. Mekakucity Actors -- 7.69 (9161)
13. Ping Pong The Animation -- 7.69 (2400)
15. Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin -- 7.59 (5545)
16. Break Blade (TV) -- 7.58 (1648)
17. Gokukoku no Brynhildr -- 7.55 (8078)
18. Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii -- 7.53 (4937)
19. Sidonia no Kishi -- 7.49 (3384)
20. Baby Steps -- 7.44 (2430)
21. Akuma no Riddle -- 7.42 (7057)

These are rated around average to so-so:
22. Hitsugi no Chaika -- 7.37 (5663)
23. Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? -- 7.30 (3008)
24. Mangaka-san to Assistant-san -- 7.23 (5806)
25. Soul Eater NOT -- 7.20 (5492)
26. Captain Earth -- 7.14 (4281)

These shows are not well liked:
27. Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara -- 7.04 (4905)
28. Seikoku no Dragonar -- 6.99 (4769)
29. Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V -- 6.94 (701)
30. Selector Infected WIXOSS -- 6.91 (4080)
31. M3: Sono Kuroki Hagane -- 6.89 (1928)
32. Blade and Soul -- 6.87 (5444)
32. Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san -- 6.87 (2267)
34. Escha & Logy no Atelier -- 6.82 (2772)
35. Kamigami no Asobi -- 6.81 (3196)
36. Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns -- 6.75 (587)

These shows are poorly rated:
37. Kiniro no Corda: Blue Sky -- 6.61 (1201)
38. Majin Bone -- 6.15 (1025)
39. Mahou Shoujo Taisen -- 6.00 (1410)
40. Kenzen Robo Daimidaler -- 5.93 (2541)

These shows are badly rated:
41. Abarenbou Rikishi!! Matsutarou -- 5.68 (704)
42. Fuuun Ishin Dai Shogun -- 5.62 (1417)

------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Most Popular MAL Anime Series from Spring 2014 as of May 9, 2014:

1. No Game No Life -- 8.53 (scored by 16907 users)
2. Fairy Tail (2014) -- 8.76 (13346)
3. Black Bullet -- 7.79 (11965)
4. Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei -- 7.94 (11645)
5. Mekakucity Actors -- 7.69 (9161)
6. Gokukoku no Brynhildr -- 7.55 (8078)
7. Isshuukan Friends -- 8.03 (7890)
8. Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou -- 7.81 (7265)
9. Akuma no Riddle -- 7.42 (7057)
10. Haikyuu!! -- 8.25 (6738)
11. Date A Live II -- 7.78 (6214)
12. Mangaka-san to Assistant-san -- 7.23 (5806)
13. Hitsugi no Chaika -- 7.37 (5663)
14. Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin -- 7.59 (5545)
15. Soul Eater NOT -- 7.20 (5492)
16. Blade and Soul -- 6.87 (5444)

I'm not surprised that Fuuun Ishin Dai Shogun, Dragon Collection, Marvel Disk Wars - The Avengers, Oreca Battle and Hero Bank are rated near the bottom. Some people are watching Fuuun Ishin Dai Shogun because they said that it's so bad that it's good.
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

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The start of this season was, quantitatively speaking, stunning for me. It has been many years since i have had so many series (near 30) in my watching list. The list is much thinner now of course, but that was expected.

On the quality side, none of those series are good enough to give them an 8/10 rating.

Series i have already dropped:

- Esca & Logy: It's a nice game and all, but can't understand how they decided to make an anime out of this when these "Atelier" games ussually lack a credible plot.
- Akuma ro Riddle: Can't lie, i had a lot of expectations for this series, but once you watch it you realize it's just a compilation of overused ideas. "One girl, her white prince, and the villians. One villian per episode and the episode focuses on that villian.". And of course, all of them females to cater for a male (fanservice liking) audience.
- Blade & Soul: Another series that was somehow promising. But after a few episodes becomes just boring. It doesn't help that the main cast lacks charisma or whatever you want to call it.
- Mushishi Zoku Shou: Even after dropping the main series years ago i gave this one a chance, maybe because i forgot why i dropped the first series in the first place: "All episodes are exactly the same".
- Makakucity Actors: This one is a real weird series. I can confess i can't really understand it. It has some interesting minutes but then they drop long boring rants between 1-2 people that go nowhere. Not for me.
- No game no Life: Can't understand why people like this series. Maybe it's just me but i can't understand many of the "rules" they use to always win and when i do they just use cheap tricks to win. (When the chess game starts the oponent states that it's not a normal game, but hey, it's should at least still be a chess game don't you think?). In the end, this kind of humor is not for me.
- Ryuugajou NaNaNa: When i realized the plot of this series was going to be the search of those NaNaNa items all the time the series stopped being interesting.
- Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka: Well, this is not the kind of "slice of life" series that i like. I'll leave it at that.
- Kanojo ga Flag: Those flags were a bad sign from the very beggining. Maybe my problem is that i don't enjoy cheap comedies anymore.
- Kaminagi no Asobi: I got bored of these "reverse harem" series long time ago. I just watch the first few episodes until i detect them..... oh, and maybe because i have a coworker who likes these ones and always asks me to tell her about series she might like :D
- Bokura wa minna kawaisou: For this series, if they focused in the "slife of life" or the "romance" part it would have been a nice series for me, but the "Comedy" part kills it.
- Haikyuu: I used to like sport series when i was young, but know sport series need to to focus not exclusively on the sport part for me to be interested in it.

Series that i'm still watching:

- Baby Steps: Well, this is the kind of sports series that i might like. For now the series isn't exclusively focusing on the tennis part, and tha's kind of refreshing for me. You at least get to know the characters to a degree. I hope it doesn't change.
- Black Bullet: It has been interesting for now. i have weak spot for characters that due to accidents or whatever have some physical "enhancements" like the one both main cast characters have.
- Captain Earth: Well, for this series i'm always on the verge of dropping the series with each episode. The main plot is one of those that don't find very interesting. I really don't know why i have not dropped this one yet.
- Gokukoku no Brynhildr: This one reminds me a lot of "Elfen Lied" and similar series. And the characters also fall uder the category of "poor girl with special powers". Also the OST is the most interesting from all the ones i have listened this season.
- Hisugi no Chaika: One of the series i'm most enjoying this season so far. I'm addicted to Chaika's speaking, monosylabes galore :D
- Isshuukan Friends: Well, the premise of forgetting things is flawed on this series. There's no real neurologic disease that targets specifically "friends". (Ef- Tale of series handled this beatifully). Maybe what is saving this series for me is that the series doesn't seem to focus excesivelly on this but instead on the social interaction part.
- M3: Sono Kuroki Hagane: This series is rather obscure. I'm not sure if i ilike it enough to keep watching it. As it started rather late compared to the rest of series maybe i still need 1-2 episodes more to decide.
- Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: I had expectations for this series nad for now it's living up to them. I just hope the relationship between brother/sister doesn't cross "those" boundaries.
- Seikoku no Dragonar: Reminds me a lot to "Zero no Tsukaima". For now i'm wathing it but i'm not sure if i'll have to chane my mind later on.
- Selector Infected Wixoss: I ussually discard right away these kind of series that are based on the promotion of one of those card games, but for some reason this one still has some kind of interesting plot. Now if i could get rid of the main cast LRIG thing (Tama or whatever it's called) constantly asking for "Battle" "Battle" "Battle"
- Sidonia no Kishi: This one has become a glad surprise for me. On episode 1 i almost discarded it because of those "horrific grahic cg designs". But once you get used to them it's really a nice series. My main concern now is that the series is only 13 episodes long and that doesn't look enough.
- Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii: This one has been a pleasant surprise for me. It has a credible romance going on paired with an interesting plot.
- Soul Eater Not: I dropped the main series right away, but for some reason i keep watching this one. Maybe i'm giving too much credit to those 3 main cast girls.
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Keropi
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

Post by Keropi »

I don't know how I missed so many posts. I thought I was checking in here at least 2-3 times a day, but apparently not. Maybe it's because I keep deleting my cookies 15-20 times a day.

I didn't know that Clockwork Planet was written by one of the No Game No Life authors. I hope we get to see Ryuuzu animated someday. I like female characters that troll and have sharp tongues. :D

After awhile I started to realize that Akuma no Riddle wasn't about the assassination attempts. It was about the character's stories and symbolism and they try to cram it all into one episode each. Then they leave out stuff from original story or change something so that the anime is not as good. Well...I still like the artwork at least. It's not really what I thought it would be though.

The main difference in my anime tastes from fifteen years ago is that I'm unable to enjoy silly, wacky comedies like I used to. It's harder for me to find jokes that I find funny compared to back then.

The tone of Ryuugajou Nanana changed dramatically in the fourth episode all of a sudden. It felt like I skipped 1-2 episodes. For me the story became more interesting after that. I'm going to see if I can finish the series now. Hopefully I will be able to. I hope. At least the characters are more interesting than before.

I think I said this before, but personally I think Kanojo ga Flag is the weakest "gamer ability" stories that I've read. "Kanojo ga Flag" was one of the earliest ones, but a lot of people have dropped the manga because they became bored of it. All of the other "gamer ability" stories I have read I liked more. The "Iris Zero" manga is very good for example. I'm sure that manga would have been turned into an anime if the mangaka didn't have health problems. "The Gamer" webcomic is another enjoyable gamer ability story. Kanojo ga Flag's humor doesn't suit my taste.

I better go to sleep. It's getting late here and I have to wake up early in the morning. :ZzZz:
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Keropi
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Re: Spring 2014 Anime Season

Post by Keropi »

I woke up an hour late for work. Oh well... :|

I wasn't certain how much you were liking this season's shows because you had all of the anime you were watching rated at 6's at one point. And your rating system is higher than mine, so that wasn't looking good there. :)

I heard that Brunhildr had some tragic stuff in it?

Isshuukan Friends --- they go more into that later

Mahouka --- the weakest arc is the first one, but a lot was left out of the anime because they don't show the thoughts of the characters and/or explain the background settings. If they did that the anime would be better, but with them leaving out stuff the first arc came off feeling shallow and not making much logical sense. You have to remember that all of it is taking place after World War III and their entire heirarchy and power structure is different from our time. Much of your countries national security revolves around the quality and training of your magicians. The powerful families that are involved in leading Japan can get away with a lot of things too. They've barely revealed anything from Tatsuya and Miyuki's background that would explain the way they act and think. The manga revealed (some of) their thought processes, but not as much as the light novels. If you watched this a second time when you know all the background stuff, the anime would come off better for most people.

Selector Infected WIXOSS turned out to be surprisingly dark so far. I just hope the characters don't become annoying after falling into their morass. Aki-Lucky is amusing.

Yeah it's too bad that Sidonia no Kishi isn't longer. That series turned out to be pretty good.

Soul Eater NOT is enjoyable. The Thompson sisters was the highlight for me so far. There's nothing like a Tsundere Cafe. :)

EDIT:

So far this season is on pace to get six 7 ratings from me (there might even be more than six). I haven't given out six 7's in a single season going all the way back to Spring 2009 season to now. The least likable season for me from the last five years was the Winter 2012/2013 season. I've given five 7's in one season twice during that time span.
Last edited by Keropi on Thu May 22, 2014 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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