Do not question Shizuru's methods.

Bubuki Buranki: Hoshi no Kyojin leads the shows I'm watching this season. I was a bit skeptical about bringing Kaoruko back to the show after being absent for essentially all of the first season, but I think it works with her as a mouthy antagonist. I particularly hope we'll get to see her get stomped by Reoko.

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."

It's a pity she won't live. Then again, who does?

I should probably write more about Akame ga KILL!, seeing as how it finished in the number two spot among the shows I watched during autumn 2014. However, I don't especially have a lot to say about it aside from acknowledging that I enjoyed it a great deal. That's significant in and of itself because I don't typically enjoy shounen fighting anime, but I like how Akame ga KILL! did it, even though it rushed the ending a bit after diverging from the manga.

It's a pity she won't live. Then again, who does?

The divergence was necessary because the manga hasn't ended yet. Without at least another cour, the anime would have had to trail off if it didn't pursue a different track. This also gave the anime an excuse to be less harsh than the manga, which has (for example) a lot more rape and lots more bad things happening to good people. Nevertheless, the anime still has a substantial body count, as a reasonable viewer should probably expect after becoming familiar with the general tenor of the title. Pretty much nobody is safe except for Akame. Her name is in the title, after all.

As if there is any chance in Hell of Sera turning out to be bad.

Because of "circumstances," I find myself dropping about half the shows I was following this season. Well, perhaps not so much dropping as putting on hiatus for the time being. Maybe I'll catch back up during a particularly lousy season that coincides with greater anime-watching opportunities. (Won't be next season, because next season looks pretty sweet.)

I'm pretty sure this is how cooties are transmitted.

I only started watching Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de because of Studio Trigger. Thus far, it comes across as fairly unremarkable, although the basic setup is sort of amusing. This is no Little Witch Academia or Kill la Kill, so I'm left judging the show on its merits. It's fine, but the turbo-dere crazy girl was the only one I really liked. Since she's basically never in the show, what's the point? This is an easy one to put on hiatus, because I don't expect any spoilers down the road to ruin my chances of enjoying it. If it turns out to be a stinker, then I'll have dodged a bullet by ducking out early now.

Succor.

As much as I enjoy watching a runty old man brazenly fondle a nubile, 16-year-old princess who suffers from poor depth perception, I'm dropping Nanatsu no Taizai because I'm already reading the manga. There are currently more than 100 chapters out, making it a cinch that even a two-cour show will just trail off at some convenient stopping point without resolving anything. The anime adaptation is pretty good, and the fights have been entertaining, but I need to clear up some room in the ol' anime block.

Oh ho ho.

I'm putting both Magic Kaito 1412 and Detective Conan on hold. I consider Magic Kaito to sort of be a Detective Conan property anyway, even though that's not technically accurate, and I've got a huge backlog of Conan episodes numbering into the hundreds, so it's easy to set both shows on back burners. Really, most of y'all should probably be watching both of these shows. It just goes to show that "nobody watches shows if they're really popular."

Bad dream?

I haven't been enjoying Amagi Brilliant Park nearly as much as most viewers, largely because the current flavor to Kyoto Animation's work doesn't quite agree with me. That said, I have enjoyed it more than Hyouka (which I think most viewers would describe as vastly superior), and I've definitely liked it more than the episodes of Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! that I watched. (I skipped Kyoukai no Kanata, Free!, and Tamako Market entirely.) Kyoto Animation is very good at what they do, and I can tell the original light novel probably would have fared much worse had it been adapted by most other studios. Nevertheless, I can't ultimately care too much about the show and was mostly watching for Ayako. 50 Cent was pretty good until the series decided she needed to fall in love with Kanye West. The dude simply isn't charismatic enough to get me to care about this relationship angle. Even if he is at least better than the typical Potato-kun, that's a low standard to reach.

I'm pretty sure the entire thing is Hitoe's fault somehow.

I will definitely undrop selector spread WIXOSS at some point (providing it doesn't get another season). I intend to follow this suffering to the end (of this cour anyway), even though I basically get no enjoyment out of the show anymore. These are broken characters stumbling their way through an asinine situation for implausible reasons. I'm mostly just waiting to see if Akira is going to kill somebody before Hanayo gets pregnant. She is going to get pregnant and spawn stupid playing card babies, right? Oh, like you have a better reason to watch this show.

The Lion King.

I was going to pause Sword Art Online 2 because I've read the Mother's Rosario arc and already know what happens. Still, this arc should be about as good as Sword Art Online ever gets, so I might as well keep watching. I'm not sure how standard (read: Kirito) fans will react to the Asuna-led focus of these remaining episodes, but I hope they at least enjoy these episodes more than they like the second half of the first season. (You know, the one where Asuna spent all of her time sitting in a chair and waiting to be rescued when she wasn't too busy being sexually assaulted.) Unfortunately for people watching the anime, there are spoilers for this arc that will be difficult to avoid because they're of the variety that detractors of Sword Art Online won't be able to resist revealing.

Aim for the face.

Actually, there's a good chance I'll place Sword Art Online 2 on hiatus anyway.

P.S. Asuna dies.

That is totally the Sailor V costume from the back...

...but it changes to the Sailor Venus battle
costume when we see it from the front.

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Crystal was an easy one to put on hold because it only airs every two weeks and because I frankly don't like it. I like the idea of Sailor Moon, but I can't claim to particularly enjoy the manga, the 90-some episodes of the original anime that I've watched, or the Crystal Bullshit episodes of the remake that I've seen so far. With Chibi Usa about to make her appearance, this was a no-brainer. I still haven't officially dropped it (or the original anime, for that matter), since I feel I should watch the entire thing as a matter of principle, but it is a slog.

Busted. P.S. Spoilers.

You know what show I'm not putting on hold? Motherlovin' Cross Ange. This is some good shit, yo. Week after week of solid entertainment. Two cours, baby!

It ain't easy being a princess these days.

I'm watching two shows this season with fairly similar basic plots. The teenage princesses in Akatsuki no Yona and Nanatsu no Taizai are both assembling teams of skillful warriors in order to defeat usurpers. That's about it with regard to their similarities, though. The remainder of this blog entry deals with themes and elements found in the source material for both anime. Although I'll avoid explicit spoilers, readers who wish to avoid learning anything in advance about either of these shows should probably just stop reading and watch both anime to develop their own comparisons. They've got princesses gettin' the band back together! Give 'em a shot!

Slaine has seen some shit.

Aldnoah.Zero was far and away the best show from Summer 2014. I know a lot of viewers disagree with this opinion, but I thoroughly enjoyed all of its episodes. I've written a lot about it. Probably too much, considering I don't like it thaaat much even though it did almost get a perfect score on my little chart jobbie.

Joseph is the only member of the main cast I find amusing.

I'm about eight weeks behind on JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Stardust Crusaders. That's far enough back for me to decide it's probably not worth making the effort to catch up. There's not actually anything wrong with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure aside from a subset of its fans that appears to partially base its self worth by deeming itself superior to anime fans who don't enjoy it. The show itself is entertaining, providing you're in the mood for that sort of thing. The show really does feel as if someone watched a bunch of grade school boys playing with action figures and then made an anime out of it. I'm sure the creative process behind the original JoJo manga is much more sophisticated than I give it credit for. After all, contemporary readers were just as critical of Jame's Joyce's serialized manga Ulysses before his childhood friend convinced him to turn it into a light novel instead.

Maybe I'll just watch episodes featuring Scarlet or Honey.

There's a decent chance I'll pick up the series again someday after it's complete. I'll just have to somehow remember that I left off at the episode where Enya forces Polnareff to lick a dirty toilet. I'm also dropping the second cour of Space Dandy because I lost interest in following the show week-to-week. At least I won't have to worry about continuity with Space☆Dandy 2nd Season since all the episodes appear to be standalone canned adventures. Well, unless I discover Honey quits Boobies and joins the crew to hunt for unregistered aliens instead, I guess.

It helps that Tatsumi is pretty okay, relatively speaking.

I discovered Akame ga KILL! after being introduced to the manga by Baka Raptor in his roundabout sort of way. (Spoilers for that blog post, I guess?) I enjoyed the chapters I read, but I wasn't nearly as enamored with it as he was. In fact, I'm pretty sure I stopped reading before even reaching halfway through the available chapters. Nevertheless, I was fairly looking forward to the anime when I heard it was announced.

When he points the finger, it means you're a rival.

Through eight episodes, I'm still on board with the show despite my usual aversion to shounen jive. Thankfully, there is more fighting than talking and standing around, so I haven't gotten bored with it yet. Akame ga KILL! does require the viewer to suspend his disbelief on numerous occasions and refrain from second-guessing certain decisions the characters make (some of which are quite boneheaded for the story's sake), but as long as the viewer is willing to wave off criticism he should be able to find parts to enjoy. Plus it's got killing and stuff.