A new season of anime is rolling in, and given the devastating accuracy (well, mostly) of Moe Suck’s previous set of predictions I thought I’d take a swing at the winter lineup. Needless to say, my prognosis is a little bleak. Props to chartfag for the handy visual guide to the horrors that await us.
I went to see Ninja Assassin today because I have awful taste and my friend got me cheap tickets.
An adaptation of a light novel (itself an adaptation of an award-winning short story), Denpa Teki na Kanojo is a fatty little bite of entertainment, low in flavor and with little or no nutritional value. However there’s still some satisfaction in this OVA for those willing to dig for it (if you plan on watching the show you should do so before reading further).
I’ve already made myself clear on how much To Aru Majutsu no Index‘s spinoff, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun sucks, and I stand by my initial impression. However at the time I suggested that the show was somehow not a worthy successor to Index, and I’d now like to recant that statement, because after careful review I’ve determined that they’re both really, really terrible.
I’m a bit late with this realization, but the beautiful (and fatally flawed) Bakemonogatari has not quite given up the ghost yet. The last three episodes are being streamed, and the first has been subbed by gg. The quality on the stream isn’t great and there wasn’t much action in this episode, but it seems like the really chronic animation failures that plagued the end of the first season have been cleared up.
Which leaves the chronic failures of plot and characterization. What really got my goat about the series is that despite the genuinely rich and two-sided relationship between Araragi and Senjougahara, every other character besides them and Oshino is a moe stereotype, and they’re all in love with Araragi (don’t split hairs; their attraction takes various forms but they are all gunning for him one way or another). The shameless harem tropes clashed with the show’s classy visuals and witty dialogue in an ugly way, and it didn’t help that the story seemed to have broken down into full-on pandering by the end of the snake arc.
Since this new arc seems like it will deal with Hanekawa’s attraction to Araragi (there are pretty clear-cut hints in the timing of Hanekawa’s headaches, not to mention her little mock-kiss in the bookstore at the beginning of the snake arc), it may be a chance for Bakemonogatari to redeem itself in my eyes. Will the show mock the shallow harem of Araragi’s ‘patients’? Or just further glorify it? I would love to forgive Bakemonogatari, but it has a lot to make up for and only two more episodes to do it.
