Anime

Hey Alastor, have you been watching Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! ? I'm nearly up to date with it and really enjoying it so far.

I finished off S1 of One-Punch Man via Netflix but have been told that it's not worth bothering with S2?

This is a timely thread for me.

Last night I watched my first ever episodes of anime (TV shows, not films), Death Note and Persona 4.

Death Note is great, I can imagine myself binging it. And Persona 4 is bizarre, in that it's literally an anime of someone playing the game. Even the UI, and the main characters stats, appear at various points. Is this a usual thing with videogame animes? Either way I'm enjoying it, partly due to nostalgia for the game.

I watched Death Note on Netflix, and I think Persona was on a site called 9anime?

Any more recommendations based on those two? The stuff they have in common that I enjoy – light fantasy elements, with the action mainly based in the real world. They show slices of real Japanese life; the shops, the malls, the normal villages etc. There are no mechs. No-one explodes into a ball of light. There's not much over-the-top screaming.

recommendations

Oh my, yes.

Netflix:

FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood – I've not actually watched this one myself, but the first TV series was very good, and I've heard nothing but positive things about this more faithful adaptation of the manga.

Girls und Panzer is a frankly ridiculous but excellent (and surprisingly tactical) show about high school girls living on a city-sized aircraft carrier who engage in high-octane tank battles against other schools' tank squads.

Little Witch Academia is Harry Potter at a witch school.

If you're willing to sink a fiver a month on another subscription service (or haven't previously taken advantage of one of their 14-day trials), you could also look into Funimation Now, which has mobile and console apps, and a whole bunch of currently-airing, recent and older shows. Some availability is patchy depending on the web of licensing around the various shows, but recommendations from there include:

Hyouka, a mystery show about nothing of any consequence, and a stunning work of animation from KyoAni. My favourite slice-of-life ever, and in the running for my favourite show of all time.

Noragami, which follows an almost-forgotten shinto god as he attempts to do enough good deeds (mostly fighting horrifying psychic monsters) to earn a shrine of his own.

Eden of the East, a kind-of-but-not-really techno-thriller about a guy with amnesia (no wait where are you going) ten billion yen in his bank account, and a personal assistant on his phone who will grant him any request for information or equipment.

My Hero Academia is a shonen action show about a kid born without superpowers in a society where such "quirks" are commonplace, and his efforts to rise to the position of Number One Hero.

Rage of Bahamut: Genesis is much better than an anime spin-off of a gashapon game has any right to be. A small-town criminal and his knight friend get wrapped up in a war between heaven and hell.

Free!, a fanservce-heavy show about an all-male swimming team.

Tsuki ga Kirei, high school romantic drama (aka my kryptonite) with a stunning art style and the most realistic, honest portrayal of young teenage awkwardness.

Yuri on Ice is about figure skaters, structured mostly like any other sports anime but with some unexpected character arcs.

Thanks! I love how utterly mental most of that sounds. I'll have a look. :)

If you've got Crunchyroll, I'd also highly recommend…

Chihayafuru, another slice-of-life/sports anime - this time about a kind of competitive snap-slash-poetry game;

Kids on the Slope, a jazz-heavy high-school period drama;

Log Horizon, an "isekai" show about people sucked into an MMO and how they go about constructing a society for themselves;

Valvrave the Liberator, which is firmly in the "mechs-explodes-into-a-ball-of-light-over-the-top-screaming" genre but really has to be seen for its utter weirdness to be believed;

Shin Sekai Yori/From The New World, the slowest of slow burns set in a post-apocalyptic semi-feudal society;

and Kokoro Connect, another high-school dramedy, this time about a group of kids whose after-school club become the unwitting subjects in a series of increasingly difficult psychological experiments conducted by an omnipotent alien intelligence that posesses their homeroom teacher.

I haven't I'm afraid Wev, the only anime I've seen in ages is Demon Slayer, because I'm a bandwagon jumping Sheep…..it's very nice though, I've effectively replaced My Hero Academia with it.

Before that I bombed all seasons of Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure. Which is fucking amazing, the writer blatantly pulls shit out of his ass and some parts are very questionable but there really is nothing like it. I think Part 5 is best so far.

I either want to get back into Utena which I never got back to when my laptop died or start Sailor Moon (we stan Sailor Mars yeah? Yeah) Now I've kind of finished the manga.

If Aniki is bringing in Tsuki Ga Kirei I will whip out White Album 2 . Note, not the second season of White Album 1, it's its own series. A romance drama set on high school set between just 3 characters. Seems very standard and it sorta is but it's very good at fleshing out the characters and why they make so many bad life choices. Unlike every single anime there days it comes in a very digestible thirteen (13) episode so you can binge it around February-ish for maximum heartache. When I use my head I say the best anime is Neon Genesis Evangelion, when I use my great it's White Album 2, best ending of all time do not @ me.

If I shouldn't have been working by now I'd explain more, like Yuru Camp. A very chill anime about camping, its nice. Will go into depth later.

Utena

The most influential, important show nobody's fucking heard of. I adore Utena, but it seems to be basically impossible to get a hold of legally.

I was hoping someone would come forward as I was at a loss what to recommend, that one I mentioned in the first post Get Your Hands Off Eizouken! Is about 3 high-school girls who create a club at school in order to make their own anime, and whilst one of the three is highly excitable it's done with warmth and the two episodes I've watched so far have just been really nice, that's on Cruncyroll too I believe though I've been watching it elsewhere.

I refrained from mentioning Neon Genesis Evangelion purely because of the mechs and the shouting :lol: but yeah it's a must watch.

Oh, if you can get it, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. That's not got lots of shouting

high-school girls who create a club at school in order to make their own anime

How the hell did I forget about Shirobako? Five women who were in the animation club at high school, now working at various levels in the anime industry, with the dream of some day making a professional show together.

I'm sure I've told you this repeatedly, but if you like Utena try out Revue Starlight, showgirls compete to be the top star at a school of theatre and the arts take place in a tournament ran by a talking Giraffe, things are not quite as they seem however, what price does the winner pay for stardom? It's got good 'fight scenes' where they sing and 'put on a show' in a bid to be the first to cut off the badge from each other's uniform. I was gonna' post the 'Duet of Pride' which is Karen vs Maya but I will instead post the amazing transformation sequence.

Spoiler - click to show

The director was apparently a protege for Ikuhara, and you can sort of see it, right? (Don't go expecting the same level of depth though) I feel like I've definitely ran all this by you but I guess it might entice somene else so big deal either way. :P

Another romantic comedy I saw last year is called Wotakoi that features a group of Otaku who are going out…except they're not teenagers. It's very slice of lifey-ey, there's no real big overarching plot. I find the characters extremely likable and it's pretty funny and cute. The 'hand movements' part in the OP is 10/10. (I probably made it sound like an an anime Big Bang Theory, it's not tyvm c:)
Spoiler - click to show

EDIT - Also, not anything that Mr Party Hat asked for, but I've seen the first two series of Attack on Titan and despite pacing issues in places I really enjoyed it, the only reason I'm yet to watch Season 3 is I've read and binged all of the manga currently out (I'm seriously running out of space in my room too). Point is itl ives up to the hype for me at least.

It's got good 'fight scenes' where they sing

Let me tell you all about a crazy little magical girl franchise called Symphogear…

I've seen the first two series of Attack on Titan and despite pacing issues in places I really enjoyed it

Let me offer a dissenting opinion: Attack on Titan is an interesting premise that is completely squandered by a pointless plot twist in episode… 8? that removes any sense of threat or tension from the rest of the show.

looks it up

Wowwwww that bit happens ages into the anime rofl. I think it's a fair development though, there are certain developments in the story to keep that twist in check.

Spoiler - click to showHe isn't the only Titan with sentience after all, I'm spoiloring this but the Collosus and Armored are in Episode 1 so whatever I'll do it anyway. And the mystery behind why Eren can shift into Titan form is arguably the most important mystery posed by the show, so I wouldn't say it's pointless but I can't say much more without probably spoiling it

I've wanted to watch Symphogear for some time. Looking forward to another fun but time consuming anime binge, like I did with Full Metal Panic and Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure. T_T

When I said ‘slice of life’ in my original post I didn’t realise that’s the name of an actual genre! Currently working my way through Sakura Quest. This is definitely my sort of thing. No robots, no space travel, just believable, likeable characters doing their daily thing. It’s also beautiful, which helps.

Sakura Quest is from a studio called P.A. Works, who've done a few more of those fairly gentle, real-life dramas; I already mentioned the excellent Shirobako above, but I also really enjoyed Hanasaku Iroha, about a girl who moves from Tokyo to work at her grandmother's traditional hot spring inn.

Other shows they've done that are worth checking out are Glasslip, which is really gorgeous but fairly uneven with the plot and definitely bites off more than it can chew, and Charlotte, about a group of kids with superpowers, all of which have some major drawback that renders them all but useless (my favourite is the girl who can turn invisible, but only to one person at a time).

Excellent, thanks!

I've taken the free trial of Funimation, and started watching Today's Menu for the Emiya Family. Which I thought was just a gentle, standalone cooking show. But which is apparently an alternate universe reimagining of mage warriors from 'The Fifth Holy Grail War'.

I'm going to see how long I can devour this 'slice of life' content, skirting along the edges of anime's weirdness, without actually seeing anything mental.

Checked out a couple of the recommendations. Hyouka is excellent, and just impossibly beautiful to look at. In fact that's a running theme of the stuff I've watched in the last few days. The quality of the animation puts western studios to shame.

I've also watched an episode of Noragami, which I think I'll enjoy despite it veering slightly into Massive Anime Fights. And I tried Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. I really did try. But that sort of thing is just anathema to me, and what I had assumed all anime was like. Which is why I'd ignored it all until last week.

Nothing wrong with it, and fair play if it's your thing. It's just not mine.

I'm sticking with Funimation over Crunchyroll, I think. With live-action stuff I'd always choose subtitles over dubs, but I don't really see a downside to animation dubs. Especially when they're of such a high quality.

Choosing dubs over subs in anime used to be sacrilege, but I think in recent years the dubs have come on a long, long way

FMA Brotherhood has a horrendously obnoxious start, designed primarily (it seems) to appeal to people already intimately familiar with the source material. I loved the first TV adaptation but bounced off Brotherhood completely, just a couple of scenes into its opening episode. The constant praise it gets makes me think it's maybe worth revisiting, but I've not find the time yet.

Back on the Ghibli train, though – the young'un and I rewatched My Neighbor Totoro this evening, and I kept a particularly close eye on it for the off-putting sensations mentioned in our prior discussion about the studio's output.

I still think the rubbery nature of the characters' movement is a large contributor to the unease experienced by some viewers, but I also wonder if the colour palette – quite subdued, natural tones with barely more than pastels for splashes of brightness – is responsible. There's a certain disconnect between the fantastical designs and unrealistic animation, and the quite traditional environments they're taking place in.

Have you seen any anime films, like 'Your Name'?

It's pretty close to what you asked for, the weirdest thing about it is that the premise is about a boy who lives in the city intermittently swaps places/lives with a girl at who lives in the more traditional japanese countryside and they start to communicate with each other through messages to read when they return to their regular bodies.

KyoAni, the studio who made Hyouka, also did an adaptation of a "4-panel" gag manga called Nichijou ("My Everyday Life") which is available on Funimation's streaming platform. It's a bit of a weird one, and like a lot of comedy shows doesn't quite work as well when dubbed, but its great. You might have seen GIFs from it before.

KyoAni. :(

Now that you mentioned them, I guess I'll recommend Velvet Evergarden. It's basically about an ex child soldier trying to get used to life after the war that took her two arms ended by joing a company that specializes in writing letters for people who are unable or simply bad at writing them (thinking about it I'd use this service all the time >_>). This is pretty hard for because being very young it was basically all she knew and one quality her job requires is understanding people's feelings which she also has trouble with.

I like it, I wish there were more of the 'stand alone' episodes that didn't really link to her quest for humanity and to find out what the last words her commander said to her meant. So it's pretty inconconsistent, but still worth trying, because if nothing else it's really pretty to look at holy shit

Just a reminder, because I'd forgotten – the first of these are up on Netflix now. Just search Ghibli to find them. For some reason they're not shouting about it on the home screen.

If you've never had the pleasure, My Neighbour Totoro is the place to start.

Is it fair to say Crunchyroll has more shows than Funimation?

I get the dub/sub split, but it seems when I search for shows generally Crunchyroll has them and Funimation doesn't.

Crunchyroll has more shows because they tend to provide a steaming platform for licensors who don't have their own, as well as licensing titles directly, purely for streaming (which tends to be cheaper than deals that include physical releases or merchandise rights), and by providing subtitled-only releases, they save on costs that they can use to license more stuff rather than producing dubs (or the attentions physical releases, with the associated manufacturing, distribution and marketing costs).

They were also part-owned by TV Tokyo for a while, and I think they got some pretty good license terms during that period.

Unlike every single anime there days it comes in a very digestible thirteen (13) episode so you can binge it around February-ish for maximum heartache.

It's fucking TIME. Time to harden my heart and get through this.</3

Utena

The most influential, important show nobody's fucking heard of. I adore Utena, but it seems to be basically impossible to get a hold of legally.

Looks like Funimation finally heard my most fervent prayers – Utena is now available on their streaming service.

(The dub is pretty atrocious, though - stick to the subs.)

As I said in the other thread (and I put it there because I keep forgetting it's an anime even though it kinda isn't?) I binged Castlevania Season 3 last night and while the weakest of the 3, it was still highly enjoyable. It juggled so many stories at once an one of them seemed to suffer from it but I still think it's fairly impressive.

If anyone hasn't seen it, it's based on the game series obviously and I think people would be surprised at how much it doesn't hold back on the violence, some of the fight scenes are decently choreographed and violent. Trevor, Sypha and someone else are likable characters but the real star ofthe series in my opinion is Dracula himself. They turned a guy most people see as the evil vampire who threw the glass of blood/wine at the floor in a timeless meme and made him an actual character. Anyway it's all on Netflix if you're interested.

After a few months of intermittent (dis)interest, I'm back on the anime train with a few things - thanks partly to a new season, and partly because I've subscribed to HIDIVE, the streaming service run by Sentai Filmworks (almost, but not entirely, what became of ADV Films after their late unpleasantness).

All of these are the dubbed versions, because I can stick em on in the background while I work and life's too short for elitism in cartoons.

I'm rewatching Log Horizon; previous attempts never made it far but I'm enjoying the new experience even if the script occasionally stretches the limits of faithful adaptation.

My high school romantic drama bullshit is alive and kicking with O Maidens in Your Savage Season which tore my heart out and sent me into a week-long emotional spiral.

The Demon Girl Next Door stars a friend of mine & Minx's in the dub, and I'm not sure I'd have bothered with it otherwise, but it's funny and pretty fluffy, and I'm trying to accept that there's no way it'll go where I'm hoping with the magical girl character.

I've also enjoyed Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out (on Funimation) much more than I expected. It's got some cheap fanservicey character designs and jokes (because anime) that diminish the emotional core of what it's doing, but when it commits to character bits it's hilarious.

On the subtitle front, I've finished the third season of OreGairu and the second of Re:Zero, neither of which I'm sure I enjoyed (albeit for mostly different reasons). I would really love anime shows to cut down on the density of expository dialogue, though. I can only take so many scenes of people restating the same concept at each other with slightly different phrasing.

After Cold Steel (which, while a game is absolutely anime as fuck) I got into a mech mood as I said, too lazy to hunt a series out I just saw what was on Netflix and there seemed to be two: Gundam Unicorns and Gundam Iron Blood Orphans which so far is more or less what I wanted. A group of kids stage a coup in the security organisation they work for on Mars after being left to die by the higher ups when Earth's military attacks them to stop the VIP they were sheltering from reaching Earth. (and attempting to get the people of Mars independance from Earth's government.)

They were getting absolutely wasted until they surprise surprise had an old Gundam they manage to get ready and turn the tides of battle. I like it so far, it's had some mech battles and the main characters are people I wanna' see the story of. I hated the main character at first, he seemed a bit cold and ruthless but he's actually only like that in battle. Anyway, a mech knees another one in the face so who cares.

It's got 50 episodes though!!!! I hate long series ususally T_T

Not watched anime for a very long time before starting that, last I watched before that was Symphogear series 1, was enjoying it but kinda had to really force myself to finish it. I'll get back to it eventually for more battle suit, singing action I guess.

I really want to start Sailor Moon at some point. It's the right mix of slice of life and campy action I need right now tbh.

Other than that I am so close to getting suckered into watching Baki which is a fighting series with an emphasis on absolutely ridiculous battle injuries. Which was what put me off at first.

I've started a frankly ludicrous show from the '80s called Oniisama e after some… let's call them recommendations on Twitter. It was described to me as "pure uncut black-market shoujo" and I honestly cannot find fault with that assessment.

This is melodrama in its concentrated form. Directed by Osamu Dezaki – whose better-known works include the sports anime Ashita no Joe and Ace o Nerae, as well as trashy assassin thriller Golgo 13 – this takes all his trademarks and crams them into a genre that is, frankly, not prepared for it.

Split-screens, dramatic watercolour freeze-frames, lighting cues that would make Edgar Wright sit up and take notes; all in the service of a story that has no rights being so intense. It's something of a credit to the direction here that in the first episode the tension around a teenager's first day at a new high school was ramped up to the point that I genuinely expected the third act to end with a horrific murder.

One of my favourite shows, Kyoto Animation's exquisite Hyouka, is a detective series about nothing of consequence, but does an admirable job infusing its ultimately-insignificant mysteries with dramatic tension and satisfying reveals. Oniisama e doesn't have that structure to rely on, but manages (with the liberal application of over-the-top thunder-and-lightning) to make "my new friend seems overly concerned with her position in the social pecking order" feel like the kind of life-or-death situation that most anime shows could only dream of portraying.

In short: I don't know what the hell this thing is, but I love it.

This is melodrama in its concentrated form.

You had me at this point.I want trashy melodrama injected into my veins ty.

I'm near the end of the first series of Iron Blood Orphans and I'll say they don't hold back on killing children/teenagers. There are a lot of child soldiers in this and the main character, Mikazuki, who is also like 16 or so coldly (although he has no choice) will just run one through with a massive spear straight through the cockpit.

I also liked the first OP (Raise your FLAG!!!) and ED (Some dramatic Jazz tune called Freesia I think) but they changed it. :(

I quit Iron Blooded Orphans shortly after they left the planet it started on. I'd come up with a theory about how the plot was going to progress, but it quickly became apparent that wasn't going to happen (and it wasn't building the kind of dramatic tension I was hoping for any other way).

That OP was great, though. If memory serves, it was by the same band that did the Log Horizon OP database, one of the true GOAT anime openers.

And just for a weird connection, Mari Okada did the story for it and O Maidens in Your Savage Season. Neither you or I had any influence on us watching either anime and as different as they are she's the writer for both I believe. Small world.

Dunno if you're watching Adachi and Shimamura, Al, but I have a strong suspicion it'll be in your wheelhouse.

Only two episodes are out yet, so there's a possibility it'll go off the rails by the end of the season, but it's pretty adorable and funny so far.

I blitzed Gleipnir over the weekend, which is a vaguely body horror manga adaptation about a guy who can transform into a "monster" (with the appearance of a Japanese prefectural mascot). After his secret is discovered by a classmate, she finds a zipper down the back which allows her to climb inside and pilot him. Also, other "monsters" (with various other abilities and transformations) are trying to kill them, in an attempt to collect enough alien coins to unlock the power to destroy the world. (Not a word of this is an exaggeration.)

It starts out strong, but I felt like it very quickly fell back on fairly predictable shonen tropes, without spending any time on the much more interesting psychological implications of the main characters' unique bond. They're very different people – a scared, reclusive nerd and a borderline-sociopathic gyaru – and the way they complement each other's issues and weaknesses, both in and out of the costume, had a lot of potential for interesting character work that was ultimately squandered.

But then, given the parade of obvious shonen villains in the OP, I was probably expecting too much from the get-go.

It is indeed on my radar! I think I'll try and at least watch the first episode tomorrow. Sounds to be of a similar light heartedness to Kase-san which I'd heartily reccomend again even for the pure good feels. (and looks gorgeous tbh)

Has anyone watched Kaguya-sama: Love is War? I've not seen it but it seems to be a really popular romantic comedy about two people who love each other but don't want to be the first one to confess, so they spend their time trying to make the other person do it first. I am a massive sheep so considering this is already my sort of thing I guess I may as well go for it.

I watched the first episode and a bit of Kaguya-sama, but I wasn't enamored. The characters are… kinda dicks. I don't care if they get together, or who "wins" their ridiculous, self-imposed challenge.

I've heard it gets better after the second or third episode, so I might give it another look.

If it's actually funny I think I'll get into it, though on that front I've been laughing enough at the Literature club's antics in 'O Maiden' (Kazusa's extreme over reactions to everything are extremely funny)

their ridiculous, self-imposed challenge.

I think I'm drawn to these ridiculous' premises I guess, however convoluted or contrived they get I think I just appreciate the attempt at something original.

Made in Abyss starts out with an airy, Ghibli-esque atmosphere, following a class of twelve-year-old "red whistles", kids in training to be "cave raiders". Their city is built on the slopes of a crater above the titular abyss, a vertical pit in the earth of unknown depth which has some bizarre pseudo-magical properties (and inhabitants) which result in "relics" – which the cave raiders are responsible for finding.

I don't know how much of a spoiler it is to say that this series goes places, but… well, it goes places. The main characters, a girl and the robot boy she found, head into the abyss to find the girl's missing mother, and along the way Shit Gets Real™ in a variety of ways.

It's frequently uncomfortable viewing, but has just as many moments of genuine joy, awe and beauty – and it's got an incredible soundtrack.

The anime's first season (also edited down into two movies) covers about the first three of nine volumes of the manga; there's a third movie that came out in Japan in January (but doesn't seem to have made it West yet), but there's still a lot of ground left to cover. I'm considering starting to collect the manga in the meantime…

I've promised a friend I'm going to watch this bcause of how much he's hyped it up. He also said it's his favourite Anime OST and it made him cry at one point, so between that and it regularly being in someone's Top 10 or Top 5 I guess I should give it a go and for once watch the anime over the manga if it's that good.

The anime's first season

I JUST LOOKED IT UP AND IT'S THIRTEEN (13) EPISODES FUCK YES. The best anime that aren't NGE are 13 episodes long!!! I'm watching Iron Bloode Orphans and it's not only 25 episodes long, it's two series of 25 Episodes! That's 50 fucking episodes!! that's almost 4 Made in Abyss!!!

Adachi to Shimamura is…fucking amazing. Adachi is the most likable, cutest, dork that ever dorked. A character I laughed at because of how awkward and self-deprecating she is but also (or because of this) someone I really want to root for. I haven't read the LN or Manga so I had no idea what it's going to be like other than a basic premise and I'm super surprised at how overt it is. (Not a big fan of subtext and I think I'm in a minority on that)

I think the thing that made me really like it is that I think I actually just love moments of character introspection? And the second episode was just 20 mins of Adachi trying to figure stuff out.

Also there's a kid in a spacesuit I guess, who my or my not actully be a time travelling alien? I have no idea what to say about that one lol.

Finished Bloom Into You. It was pretty good, but ends right as things feel like they're about to get started properly, and there's no word of a second season so… might have to grab the manga I guess.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's a bit cruel that they built up to the school play and didn't actually show it, but at the same time I'm glad they didn't shuffle things around and just…respected the source material a little. I was hoping for sure we'd get a second season, but it doesn't seem like it anymore. :(

The manga is good so there's that, but I'm really happy with this adaptation. The high point I think ist he school festival where they added that beautiful insert song during the baton pass. It's obviously not possible to do this with Manga so I think that time the Anime holds the W on that one. Overall I think it stayed remarkably close to the source material but at times elevated it such as in bits like that. (Nothing like Citrus' adaptation basically)

Sayaka = Queen. The scene of her fucking off her ex was glorious.

I've gone from watching hardly any anime to having ten shows on the go (plus the four others I've finished since the start of this month).

My latest addition is Talentless Nana, which looks like the most generic, predictable high-schoolers-with-superpowers show of 2006 – but it has such a powerful gear change in the final scene of episode one that I've been completely hooked.

I'm not convinced it's going to keep up its pace (there are only three episodes out yet), but I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed.

Of the other shows on my list, I'm probably gonna drop Wandering Witch, which started strong but has faltered pretty quick, and Revue Starlight (sorry, Al! I just can't get invested in it). I'm gonna give Flip Flappers another episode or two before I make up my mind, but I can't see it sticking around despite its excellent animation.

The best anime that aren't NGE are 13 episodes long!!!

Not true – Revolutionary Girl Utena is 39 episodes.

Wakarimasu

(I didn't purposefully choose this specific Giraffe but damn he nailed the expression I was trying to convey)

I really liked Revue Starlight, for the Revues if nothing else but I liked the cast (This is Tendo Maya! ) and the story does go a little bit out there, not Utena 'out there' I'm sure Spoiler - click to showTime loop. You'll never know what the deal with the Giraffe was now!

But yeah, I think you've tried enough anime I like to not feel bad about this one, even if it wasn't on my behalf or anything. Just curious, was it everyone saying 'ohhh if you like Utena you'd like this' something that made it just fare even worse off for you as an actual Utena fan?

Not true – Revolutionary Girl Utena is 39 episodes.

!!!

That's x3 as many as 13, holy shit. Interested to see how they'll pull that one off.

I have heard good things about Flip Flappers but unlike you I don't think I can watch so many anime at once right now. Based on screenshots and brief word of mouth Assault Lily seems to be the show I'd watch this season but maybe not IN this season

Then again I could just start season 2 of Symphogear instead. (I can almost hear you foaming at the mouth when you learn I've not finished this either…)

Just curious, was it everyone saying 'ohhh if you like Utena you'd like this' something that made it just fare even worse off for you as an actual Utena fan?

There wasn't enough drama. The stakes were far too low, or at least too poorly-explained. Outside of the revues, everybody was… kinda friends, which made it hard to actually root for anybody. And the cast was just too large for none of them to have any clear heroes/villains.

Take something like Utena or even (God help us) Kill la Kill, and even though eventually the characters on all sides get depth and motivations and backstories, to begin with there's a power structure that the protagonists have to rally against. Revue Starlight just had weirdness that everybody was participating in, with no clear prize beyond "be a star" – which is not a goal that can be uniquely satisfied by the giraffe's games.

That's x3 as many as 13, holy shit. Interested to see how they'll pull that one off.

There are four arcs of increasing weirdness. The final one maybe goes too far in some regards, but the ending is absolutely worth perservering.

Assault Lily

I watched an episode of this and didn't feel the need to keep going. Magical Girls But Gritty has a high bar to clear since Madoka, and this didn't make it. It also suffers from an increasingly-common problem where there are too many characters, apparently just so they can market bishoujo figurines and dakimakura to as many sub-types of otaku as possible.

Symphogear …. (I can almost hear you foaming at the mouth when you learn I've not finished this either…)

I made it three-and-a-bit seasons into Symphogear and keep meaning to go back, but I have a terrible feeling I'd need to rewatch a bunch of it to remember who all the characters are by now. Or I could just accept that it doesn't f–king matter and enjoy the insanity.

I liked that friends thing! I expected that Claudine and Maya would be the assholes at least but they weren't, until they had to fight each other in a thing I still can't tell where the act ended and the combat began (Maya almost slashing Karen's throat and whatnot). I think I was drawn in to the Revues and guess what Hikari's and the Giraffe's deal was.

There's a play (there's also a game and other stuff) and the voice actors are all the same, which is really cool, basically the whole thing is like a project. Anyway, Maya is much more Tsundere and slightly more of an asshole in that (Her opening line is something like 'sorry I don't know failure') but not really anything you're your looking for I just wanted to point out the play I guess.

The friends thing would have worked better if there had been more cliques, at least early on. Everybody turning out to actually not be villains and have legitimate reasons for participating can be an effective dramatic tool, but only if there's some tension in it. If they're all decent people from episode one, it means that every victory, by every character, is undercut by the fact that they've stomped someone equally likeable.