I don't know why Ulrica has wings on her boobs,
but they're probably for generating downforce.

I'm tempted to describe Chaos Dragon as the broth of too many cooks, but I'm not quite optimistic enough to believe that. More likely it's just your regular ol' half-assed train wreck. As I understand it (and certainly do not rely on my impressions as the truth, garnered as they were from the rumor and conjecture of various secondary sources), Chaos Dragon is an anime adaptation of a real-world Red Dragon role-playing game campaigned by esteemed writers and directors including Nasu Kinoko (Fate/stay night), Narita Ryohgo (Durarara!!!), and Urobuchi Gen (Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika). The actual anime itself is incoherent and frankly terrible in wholly unremarkable ways. I have no interest in the lead character, Ibuki, and never agreed there was a good reason to make this kid king. I also didn't care about that nonsense about the Red Dragon's powers, or killing suicidal friends, and definitely not the bewildering responses to news about his sister.

The coffin is for carrying around Lou's talking sword.

Basically the only parts of the anime I found entertaining were Sir Swallow's amusing curse and Lou's psychotic behavior. Sir Swallow's curse destroys any tools he uses (man, that is such a Nasu thing to come up with), so his swords disintegrate after each slash, his teacups shatter after each sip, and, well, you get the idea. I was also under the impression his sexual partners would suffer grisly fates, because I guess they would count as tools as far as his curse is concerned (again, such a Nasu idea), unless they are protected by plot prophylactics. Lou (Urobuchi Gen's Not Chaika lady who carries around a coffin) was interesting because she goes around killing people and not being particularly nice about it. For example, she killed the most aerodynamic character in the show and lugged the severed head around for the sole purpose of hucking it at Sir Swallow later.

Sir Swallow's solution? Carry around a box magazine of extra swords.

To me, Sir Swallow and Lou are both characters perfectly suited to their respective creators. I can't claim that my impressions of Nasu and Urobuchi are necessarily accurate, but I would much rather have watched a home video of the Red Dragon campaign that inspired the Chaos Dragon anime. I think it would have been pretty interesting to see how these authors interacted with each other, particularly if their associated reputations match stereotypes fitting their previous work. I can't promise even this would still be compelling for 12 episodes, but I'm pretty confident it would have been more amusing than the Chaos Dragon anime.

Here, try this. All the cool kids are doing it.

I was a bit surprised to learn the Overlord anime is apparently quite popular. I had assumed everyone else would have dropped the show after a somewhat slow first couple of episodes. And when I say "slow," I mean the first episode literally only covered the material found in the one-sentence synopsis found in pre-season write-ups for the show. Pretty much the only reason I kept on watching it is because the director, Itou Naoyuki, also directed Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu (although admittedly he was not responsible for episode three, the one I really liked). There isn't anything in the show that's bad necessarily, although I do think Hara Yumi is overacting Albedo's Turbo Dere comic relief moments. The episodes on a whole, though, are generally consistent, so I'm guessing most viewers will enjoy it about as much towards the end as they did at the start.

Narberal is pretty good at killing people but sort of shit at keeping her trap shut.

With regard to what Overlord is actually about, it's technically another player-trapped-in-an-RPG story, but it doesn't play out quite the same way as other anime with this setup. For one thing, Momonga doesn't even make token attempts to escape back into the real world. Granted, being a super powerful skeleton dude in charge a bunch of also super powerful steadfastly loyal undead folks is probably a lot better than whatever it was he had going on back home. Technically, all of these characters are supposed to be fearsome and evil, but ol' Momo (or Ein's Own Goal, depending on what he's calling himself on whatever particular day) goes about taking care of business in a fairly pragmatic sort of way, basically only killing people who need killing. (Naturally, Momo doesn't seem to have much trouble finding people who need killing.)

You can tell Momo is going easy on them because he's using swords instead of his bare hands.

In a way, Overlord is not unlike Gate in that both shows take place in fantasy worlds where the "good guys" crush the living dog shit out a bunch of scrubs who thought they were badass until some Japanese folks came along and redefined what it actually takes to be badass in that world thereafter. With 10 episodes already complete, I'm not expecting Momonga or his minions to face any serious challenges, but watching Momo and his maids demolish random jackasses isn't actually as boring as it might sound. Considering how much people bitched about the JSDF exercising overwhelming force against armies of chumps with swords, and how many viewers argued Kirito was overpowered in Sword Art Online, I wouldn't have expected Momonga to get a pass. He's constantly overestimating the abilities of his enemies and dismantling them with embarrassing ease despite handicapping himself time and again, yet nobody seems to have any qualms about that. My theory is that it's because he's really tall and speaks (externally, anyway) with an authoritative voice. That and being a big skeleton guy. I'm pretty sure Tony Robbins had a chapter on that.

Kurumi is the Gakkou Gurashi! Best Girl because she's the
only one who's armed, and she's armed at all times.

I'd like to apologize for spoiling the twist and thus ruining the first episode of Gakkou Gurashi! (School-Live!) for you. I hadn't done it yet, but I've done it now, so if you didn't know already...sorry. That said, it's only a spoiler for the first episode. I learned from a season preview that this anime is actually a zombie survival story rather than a school life cute-girls-doing-cute-things morass, but I don't feel knowing this ruined the show for me. What did ruin the show for me was Yuki. I managed eight episodes before dropping School-Live! in disgust. Look, it is not cute for a high school senior to talk and act like a five-year-old child.

It's funny because she's easily amused and unable to stay on task. Also petulant.

I don't care that Yuki is supposed to be emotionally broken by the horrors she has witnessed. There are still entirely too many filler moments that serve no purpose other than to goose anime fans who enjoy the infantilization of women. See, there are flashbacks of pre-apocalypse Yuki, and she's just as fucked up there, so I presume this is her natural state. In any case, I've elected to read the manga instead of continuing to watch the anime. I simply can't identify enough enjoyable aspects unique to the anime to justify following it any longer. (The OP is sort of catchy.) Unless the manga and the anime are dramatically different, I think this is the way to go.

Chaste local idols don't go around flashing naked armpits.

I ordinarily would have dropped Million Doll already, but instead I re-watched its first six episodes in preparation for the show's final stretch. This was only possible because each episode is four minutes long. Million Doll has entirely too much frightful 3D CGI for me to watch six full-length episodes, let alone re-watch that many. Even aside from the 3D CG, the show looks cheap as Hell. (Are we still allowed to claim a show looks "cheap" in a post-Shirobako world?)

Pages and pages of idols.

There are entirely too many Cinderella Girls. It wasn't a problem during the first cour when it appeared the show was content with keeping the story on the 14 main idols; that worked for its two-cour predecessor. However, the current season of THE iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls seems intent on cramming more and more of the game's enormous battery of idols into the anime, presumably attempting to placate ardent fans of niche characters with cameos. Unfortunately, this practice dilutes the show as a whole, making this half of the Cinderella Girls anime somewhat underwhelming.

<~cathead> can i sign up for rory's army
<~cathead> where's the Emroy Recruitment Center
<~cathead> it's just like a poorly constructed table and sign like lucy's thing in charlie brown
<~cathead> THE RORY IS: IN

Sure, why not.

Thus, I made this.

Hey, Alex owns more than one dress.

I started watching Gangsta. because of Noto Mamiko. The "hooker with a heart of gold" is an old trope in American television and film, but somewhat rare in Japanese anime. Mamikore heart-of-gold hookers are even less common. Through four episodes, Mamiko's character, Alex, hasn't had a lot to do and unfortunately isn't particularly interesting. Making matters worse, I don't find the two lead characters interesting either. Frankly, my eyes glazed over when the show started explaining the power levels and the dog tags used to identify skilled fighters.

Maybe they're actually like blood-type fortunes.

Really, Gangsta. strikes me as something cobbled together to appeal to anime fans who are desperate for any shows that don't contain "moé shit." I've seen a couple of comparisons to Samurai Champloo, and I suppose they are similar in the sense both shows are about two men and one woman, but that's really about as far as it goes. Besides, Samurai Champloo is vastly superior in terms of entertainment value. Gangsta. unfortunately doesn't have much in its favor; well, except that it's not "moé shit."

This is a terrible idea.

I'm watching a lot of shows this season. I'm not watching literally everything, but I am following substantially more titles than I typically do. I fully expect to abandon a large number of these series during the summer 2015 cour, but I've only dropped three shows so far.