Sure, let's play. I took a much needed break from anime during the fall, when I despised everything from that season before even watching the first episode, despite that apparently being quite a strong season, but now I'm back. I'm keeping myself on a strict "good anime only" diet this season, though. No hate-watching, and anything I'm not sure about I'm waiting until I can assess the consensus on the first couple episodes. Well, I guess that's not a hard and fast rule.
Yurikumaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Arashi
Notice anything weird about Yurikuma? Okay, you probably noticed a lot of weird things about Yurikuma, but I just wanted to call your attention to something about the sexual imagery. It's absent of most (not all) of the sexual imagery anime usually deals in. Not that it doesn't have sexual imagery - it's laden with it - but it's not the familiar kind of imagery we euphemistically call "fanservice". Now I'm not sure if eternally young spaceman Kunihiko Ikuhara is capable of telling a coherent story in less than 30 episodes (Penguindrum suggests no), but I guess we'll find out.
Recommended if you've seen Penguindrum or Revolutionary Girl Utena. Otherwise it will more than likely mean less than nothing to you.
Death Parade
Uh so the second episode comes out today and I guess I shouldn't talk about it until I've seen it but I will anyway. Death Parade is an expansion of a short movie from 2013 called Death Billiards, and has the exact same setting and premise: two people arrive in a weird bar, and the bartender informs them they have to play a game against one another with their lives on the line. I won't spoil the rest, but if you've seen Death Billiards the revelations are exactly the same in the first episode of Death Parade.
Quite frankly, I didn't like it. Death Billiards got by on the ambiguity of its ending, and Parade seems to have erased that ambiguity in a manner I find rather unpleasant. Some people have mentioned some alternatives, which make less sense to me. I can envision a satisfactory scenario, but I don't think the show is headed in that direction.
Yatterman Night (or Yoru no Yatterman)
Gatchaman Crowds makes a point, and Yatterman Night makes a line. One more "weird-ass reboot of an ancient superhero anime" and we'll have a pattern! Yatterman is a 70's anime about...hell if I know, because just like Crowds you don't need to know anything about the original. Unlike Crowds, though, Yatterman Night is actually a sequel of sorts, with the main cast being the descendants of the villains of the original show. The first episode doesn't tread beyond series description on wherever it is you happen to read descriptions of anime, but it's cute and dramatic and the reveal of the Yatterman at the end of the episode has a surprising amount of punch. Also - and I don't usually care about this so I don't want this to come across as a selling point - the first episode is really visually powerful. I wouldn't count on that continuing because first episodes are always the best-looking, but it's springy and stretchy and fluid and cartoony and the CGI is nowhere to be found this is all hand-drawn as far as my limited eyes can tell. Gurren Lagann, of all things, might be the closest comparison.
Recommended if you like the description. Not recommended if you dislike the description.
Next, the returning champions...
Durara!!x2
You grownups can take your "where's muh baccano s2" and shove it cuz Durarara!! isn't just as good as Baccano!, it's better. Yeah, I said it. Durarara is better than Baccano. You can quote me on that. If you're one of the three people (me, myself, and I) who like DRRR more than Baccano then you're going to love this episode because - as anyone who's seen it will tell you - nothing much happens. Nothing much happening is great news. This is literally a show about nothing much happening (in a very un-Seinfeld way).
On the other hand, you know those three crazy otaku characters who drive around in that van? Yeah, well it's been a couple years since DRRR was last on air and they've been doing plenty of reading in the intervening years. Read of light novels. One particular light novel series, to be precise. Multiple mentions are made of Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Irregular at Magic High School - it got an anime adaptation last year), which is...well. I guess the polite way of putting it would be that Mahouka is the worst thing ever made by a human, but I can't even say that because I'm pretty sure the author isn't human at all. As such, Durarara!!x2 receives a -100 on its final score, for a 0/10.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventures: Stardust Crusaders - The "We Don't Care That We Ran Out of Tarot Cards" Arc
It's JoJo, man.
Shirobako
This is a leftover from fall that I mention mostly because I didn't pick it up until January. I'm not caught up yet but, um, wow. My heart. So good, so cool, and yes, so moe. I just want to snuggle everyone in that show.
Recommended for: humans.
And last, things I'm not watching (but might watch)...
Kantai Collection (KanColle)
Ehehehehe oh no you don't, Japan, you can't fool me. I watched and liked Code Geass, and watched and hated Guilty Crown. I am not obligated to subject myself to any further Japanese nationalism, no matter how thinly or thickly veiled. Also, I've already seen Arpeggio of the Blue Steel, so I'm pretty much soured on the concept of boat-daughters to begin with. Speaking of which, a certain amazing twitter account pointing out that they should very clearly be called boat-wives, not boat-daughters. If it turns out that KanColle is like really cute, or if something interesting happens, then I'll pick it up but not until then. And no, "boat-daughter shooting arrows that turn into fighter planes" does not count as something interesting.
Gourmet Girl Graffiti (Koufuku Graffiti)
*checks anichart as I write this* Wait series composition by Mari Okada yeah lol I'm almost definitely not picking this up. I was hoping for Shinbo or at least faux-Shinbo, but without him as director (and no one attempting to visually emulate him either) all that's left is the description, which includes the phrase "slightly erotic meal scenes". Which, let's be honest, sounds fantastic. Again, I'll pick it up if I have reason to.
Junketsu no Maria (Maria the Virgin Witch)
Uh, yeah, you have fun with this one, guys. The description sounds terrible. I've read previews by people who liked it (a lot) and they made it...sound terrible. If this show gets really, really, really good I'll take a look but that's not going to happen.
Rolling Girls
To be honest I kinda want to switch this with Death Parade because I didn't dig Death Parade and I could always use more cute in my life, but oh well. I'll wait until two or three episodes are out and then almost undoubtedly pick it up. Rolling Girls has, however, managed to generate this season's 'controversy', because Hope Chapman, one of Anime News Network's more vocal reviewers, made the error of not liking something and saying so on the internet while being a woman. So that happened I guess.
And that's it! That's me this season.
Remember kids, friends don't let friends watch anime based on light novels.
